Absolutely. What microsoft have done leads me to this line of thought:

1. Microsoft think that they will make more money by selling it as Vista-only than by making it work on XP.
2. We can make this assumption as we know both options were available to them and, in America, they are legally bound to making the decision that will make the most profits for the shareholders. Otherwise, the shareholders can sue them.
3. Microsoft have also given the game a hefty price tag.
4. Microsoft have also made the game somewhat 'empty', with only a handful of maps and 3 game modes (which are almost identical)
5. The game is almost dry of any SR content, and breaks many of SR's rules (teleportation, resurrection). The only smatterings of SR being the names of 2 pieces of tech and some corp-flavoured biased propaganda between the training missions.
6. The game is admittedly fun, but there are other fun games out there... Maybe even games that are more fun.
7. The game does offer 'balanced' multiplayer between consoles and PCs, which may be considered a selling point or a down side. They certainly lost the hardcore PC FPS gaming crowd with such a move, where accuracy and reactions are king.
8. Microsoft must thus believe that the pull of the empty game will be sufficient that people will both pay the game's hefty price tag and go out and buy vista, with another hefty price tag. It strikes me that they must make this choice, over buying other fun games, based almost purely on the SR title, and think their ignorance of established shadowrun anything will not sway anyone.
9. It thus strikes me that M$ think SR fans are suckers.

Point 7 is about the only one I can't really place. Certainly I consider it to be a down side, and I still can't see someone with a joypad comparing to a PC player. The PC controls are limited/nerfed yet still fairly capable, you can still turn 360 degrees in a split second for example. Perhaps I'm in a minority here, not seeing the draw of the 'live' audience, as I know nobody with an Xbox 360... My friends generally own Nintendo Wiis rather than Xbox 360s or PS3s, but if I'm right in thinking that PC players need to pay another price tag (Game, Vista, and a Live subscription), then I suspect I'd decline even if my friends had appropriate consoles.