oh boy....

http://kotaku.com/the-new-xbox-boss-is-steve-ballmer-638364468

apparently totilo got a hold of the email that balmer sent out to the xbox division that informs the head xbox guys that they will be directly reporting to the current Head of Microsoft steve balmer

here's the email totilo linked to in his article, im sure this is all in the interim though till they get a proper new guy up in there

From: Steve Ballmer

Sent: Monday, July 1, 2013

To: Microsoft – All Employees

Subject: Don Mattrick’s Next Chapter

Zynga announced today that Don Mattrick would be its new CEO, effective July 8. This is a great opportunity for Don, and I wish him success. Don’s directs will report to me and will continue to drive the day-to-day business as a team, particularly focused on shipping Xbox One this holiday.

Since joining IEB more than six years ago, Don and his team have accomplished much. Xbox Live members grew from 6 million to 48 million. Xbox 360 became the No. 1 selling console in North America the past two years. We introduced Kinect and have sold more than 24 million sensors. We released fantastic games, and, most importantly, we expanded Xbox to go beyond great gaming to deliver all the entertainment people want — sports, music, movies, live television and much more.

In the past month, the IEB team showed for the first time here on our Redmond campus, and again at E3, how we are going to continue to transform entertainment with Xbox One. I am incredibly proud of the work and vision culminating in Xbox One.

I’m particularly excited about how Xbox pushes forward our devices and services transformation by bringing together the best of Microsoft. The consoles are incredible all-in-one devices with built-in services that consumers love, including Bing, Xbox Live, Internet Explorer, SkyDrive and Skype. And, just as important, Xbox Games, Xbox Video, Xbox Music and SmartGlass light up Windows PCs, tablets and phones.

Thank you, Don, for setting us on a path to completely redefine the entertainment industry. The strong leadership team at IEB and their teams are well positioned to deliver the next-generation entertainment console, as well as transformative entertainment experiences, long into the future.

Steve

for point of reference for those who dont know who he is, Steve Balmer is currently the Head of Microsoft. top of the food chain at Microsoft.

this guy, for better or for worse, he's an "interesting" guy to watch speak.

interesting times ahead folks.

I don't know, he seems cool.

@thecreamfilling: if nothing else, if he sticks as the current head till next E3 and they dont find a new guy. he's gonna be entertaining to watch on stage :P

Jack Tretton vs Steve Ballmer.

It's on. Like Donkey Kong.

There can be only one.

At least he cares about developers (developers developers developers)

We stand on the threshold of a new beginning. In order to ensure our success and continuing market influence, all departments will now be reorganized into the first Microsoft Empire, for a safe and prosperous company, which I assure you will last for ten thousand years!

A Microsoft Empire that will continue to be ruled by a sovereign ruler... I, Lord Steve Ballmer III!

Alright.

And here I was hoping Velocity Girl would take over.

You take this as bad news?

Yeah, Microsoft still doesn't know what's going on. They're going down next gen.

You sure did get alot more than I did out of that sendoff letter.

This is prime time for Allard to take back his platform and guide it to the future.

DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS are better off working with Sony.

me internet user, thinks this guy is a lunatic and is another out of touch exec,,

but you dont be the head of microsoft without having a lot of intelligence/ a sense of direction, but if it wasnt for windows pc's being entrenched, microsoft would not be as relevant anymore imo. and even still, the core of what windows is was not made under the balmer regime.

but ultimately we'ill see what happens, like i said, interesting times ahead, im just glad to see mattrick is out of there.

@truthtellah:

thats beautiful

I have somehow managed to never actually see or hear Ballmer in motion before today.

And I approve of what I saw.

Well who else would they have gotten?

COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING AND COMING

not my job to find out, ultimately unless one of the xbox people under mattrick like phil spencer gets a promotion, or a new guy steps in or they bring back someone like peter moore from EA, this was the best move they could do right now than just having that division without a head,

my opinion as an internet user doesn't change of balmer though. especially when he wants to shift microsoft into a services and devices company, (which my assumption would be that the majority of X1 features will be hidden behind xbox live gold)

again we'll see what happens, he seems like just a interim head till they properly promote someone to run the xbox division.

What

yes?

do i know how balmer operates at microsoft fully? nope,

what i read and hear and watch of how balmer is through internet media makes me think hes another out of touch exec,

if your gonna tell me not to have an opinion of a person based of internet media then you might as well try telling the majority of the internet that.

I think he's just saying that he would still dislike Ballmer whether he was their only choice or not. The point being that anything involving him is something he might find reason to complain about.

In this case, Ballmer is simply taking on additional responsibility, but I imagine he will be trying to find someone else. As this is a boss getting rid of an employee and then taking over the work of that employee until they find someone to serve in that role in the long term.

I'm kind of glad. Mattrick was a bit of a flake and Ballmer is... I don't know. A bit less of a flake? He seems more confident in the things he says. I mean... at least he's a step up from Mattrick.

But I have no idea how Ballmer operates. He might be good, he might be bad, but we all have to know that this is TEMPORARY. Obviously they will find someone else.

They should have fucking kept J Allard.....

If I were him, I would do one crazy little thing before handing it over to someone else. Like add black & white buttons to the controller.

Nothing I have heard about Ballmer makes me think this is a positive.

Thank you, I couldn't quite understand that sentence.

If I were Ballmer, I would just try to do very popular things like reducing restrictions on Indies, getting rid of high costs for game patches, and removing Netflix from being behind Xbox Live until the board drags me away in my insanity.

Though, Ballmer really just has to manage the Xbox department until he finds a replacement. Which will probably be soon.

@connerthekewlkid: No problem! With a diverse community of folks, it's natural that we might often struggle to fully understand one another. :)

No just didn't really know what you meant by that sentence, and you don't have to fight with people on this forum you know.

Not "as an internet user" but that whole sentence.

and also you have a habit of leaving comments in threads that are either passive aggressive or dismissive because of another viewpoints, so you shouldnt be surprised when people argue with you.

Now that's just plain hypocritical. I seem to see you in arguments started by you quite often.

It's never too late to bring back the tribe.

I never denied that, but if I start an argument its not because I wanted to pick a fight with them, I usually just want to get my opinion across and don't mean to start something.

Actually, all three of you are guilty of that, and hell, so am I.

Uh-Oh I don't like where this thread is going....

on topic: It doesn't matter to me at all who is leading the X-Box division at microsoft because I don't plan on owning an xbone either way.

Reading that email, my first reaction was "why is he selling their product to his own emploees" until I realized the company I work for have a newsletter thst goes out with the payslip that is of similar "we're awesome and doing great" talk similar to that email. So I guess that's how it is.

That aside, this whole thing is crazy.

All I know about him is he's into throwing chairs across the room.

Well, and that he's pushing for subscription services to Office and Visual Studio. Which I'm not a fan of but hey, Qt Creator is free and slightly better so fine, do what you want MS.

trying to think of what you're talking about,

if your referencing when i told you to feel free to keep commenting and its not gonna change my mind when i was posting the X1 stories, you were complaining about why i keep posting them because you dont like those stories.,

im sorry dude, but i post those to find out what people think of said stories, good or bad, imo people just coming on and whining about these stories about how its just dogpiling on MS is pointless and rather stupid,

as A its not my fault MS has been in the gaming news for controversial reasons,

and B, Why even post in the story you dont like in the first place? all that does is just surface it back up for it to get more views.

smartly vote with your clicks and posts dude,

makes me understand how it annoys patrick when he posts about sexism stories and then people just comment and whine that those stories get added,

I think Steve Balmer, from what I've heard and read, is crazy as hell. And apparently a control freak. I don't think it bodes well for the early life of the Xbox One that a switch up like this is happening but I think anything goes long term.

Also something, something, DEVELOPERS!

Double also, John DiMaggio is the one true Steve Balmer.

First day on the job...

"What? Who took out all the DRM? I'll fix this!"

I think you just replied to yourself, and why did you delete your comment?

Look at how he's standing. Fucking beautiful.

I can't WAIT til this guy starts talking down to us at press conferences.

I like him.