"We're excited to see Ford's great innovations developed on top of our Microsoft Auto platform that continue to improve how people spend time in their car, " says Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division.

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Riding high on its previously-introduced sister products -- the Handheld PC and Palm PC platforms, now dead and transformed into Windows Mobile, respectively -- Microsoft's Auto PC initiative was promised to herald a revolution for in-car entertainment and productivity.

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In Japan, where Softbank is the favored partner for U.S. high-tech firms, Microsoft introduced CarPoint, its Internet auto locator service after offering 50% to Softbank and another 10% to Yahoo Japan, where CarPoint will be the exclusive car-buying service.

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Last year Madden was up against Take-Two's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Microsoft's Halo 2.

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Microsoft is also working closely with the auto industry to adapt to the carmakers' requirements.

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That invisible fix is a trick Microsoft adopted in late 2011 from Google, which has long pushed auto-updates to Chrome with no user interaction.

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Earlier this year Microsoft used two of the machines in its release of the online game Grand Theft Auto 4.

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