The Microsoft Layoffs

Could you suggest to the LIVE team to add more music options please. Especially that you can alter the level of CD rip ie WMA lossless format.

A nice idea would be able to download(and pay) HD music videos of tracks you have on your HDD. Key for me are ease of use and speed of service.

Sorry to hear MS cutting back, but Esemble(being shutdown) and Lips like games being the new MS A-list seem to indicate where MS is heading.

Glad you kept your job there must be some sanity left, shame about Dave though.

Thanks for the thoughts and wishes. As always, I’ll keep them in mind as I work with the teams. As to the layoffs? It’s one of those unfortunate aspects of capitalism. I wouldn’t read too much into direction from these layoffs, though… there’s some amazingly cool stuff coming down the road.

What worried me was this talk of MS having laid off 30% of testers.

All I can guess is someone figured fewer games will be released this year so downsize accordingly.

However that should have been an opportunity to improve the testing phase. Especially as everything has to be verified before being let through and that already seems to take a loooong time with major bugs still making it through the process.

Also, I can’t help think its short sighted to be laying people off from the entertainment division when its already been said this is something people are most likely to prioritise their spending on in these hard times. Because people like me stuck at home with zero job prospects can’t afford to go out for meals, movies, etc so we stay in playing games.

Only in the last 12 months have I switched from using Windows as my desktop OS to now using Linux, because I could not rationalise running my Linux machine for web development/networking AND having a Windows box running at the same time, wasting electricity.

I also find it offensive to close down GamerscoreBlog, because despite what is said to the contrary there is NOT sufficient alternative sources of communication with Microsoft regarding Xbox. Many people have only gotten their problems sorted due to blog staff stepping in and putting right the mistakes of the customer support department. Now its a lot of weight on Larrys shoulders especially considering he has talked about downsizing his own blog in the past, to make it more personal and reduce his workload.

I have never felt xbox.com very informative, its pure PR bull yet ironically the PR blog was lot lighter on the PR bull. It also allowed people outside the US to hear a voice from the source. The UK services always seem to be coming from the UK team, which I hate it say it are VERY annoying (in the videos) and not as informative.

Which brings me to Inside Xbox which at least outside the US, is crap and again heavy on the PR bull. I want informative not silly PR stunts like the Dead Space videos. Well, PR stunts are alright, if they aren’t pure childish rubbish like the Dead Space videos were. I got a little chuckle out of them, but mostly just felt "get on with it for crying out loud".

Fact is, none of the "alternatives" compare to the blogs. Surely the fact people have bemoaned the lack of an Xbox web browser is evidence that people are not happy that Live is providing everything they need to know. I know a few people, me included, who would have loved it to read the blogs on their Xbox.

I feel this is a huge step backwards towards the Microsoft I always loathed and perceived did not care about their customers. I had changed my opinion of Microsoft purely down to GamerscoreBlog and decided they did care after all. This one move makes me doubt that I was right. The staff DID care, so they laid them off/moved them to a less caring position in the company. Bearing in mind I was under the impression all the GamerscoreBlog staff had day jobs, with the blog just being another avenue of communication with the customer. Presumably someone figured "hey, if we drop the blog we can lay someone off as everyone else can take up the slack by not having to blog anymore".

Quite frankly, its something I expected Sony to do but not Microsoft.

So I will be awaiting the HUGE improvement in worldwide Live services to fill in the gap left by the blog. I certainly wont be holding my breath.

Thanks for the thoughts, as always. Couple of things I might comment on:

First, I wouldn’t read too much into testers being let go. It’s certainly disappointing for those affected, and I’m sorry for that. But testing is one of the more variable areas of the business, which is one reason companies use a lot of contract workers. We just got past the holiday season so it’s likely there are fewer titles needing testing *at this moment* than six months ago. The needle will tip back in the future.

As to blogs, all I can really say is that it’s pretty tricky to write a blog while working anywhere in the industry. (I shifted my focus over a year ago, details here: http://ozymandias.com/no-comment/) I have no way of knowing of whether any of these challenges also affected other teams, but I’d imagine there were multiple reasons they decided to stop writing (including the multiple outlets of information that they mentioned themselves).

I’d encourage you to watch Larry’s blog and give comments/feedback there as well if you feel the flow of information isn’t what you’d hope.

First of all, its a sure shame for all of the people who found themselves without a job now. I do not know the details, but I truly hope they have not been left out without any kind of compensation (not sure how US laws handle these things, sorry).

It is kind of ironic when not too long ago some people started considering if the new web 2.0 madness (and its associated technological rise) was going to end like it did less than a decade before. While the crash has not (yet) been so disastrous one can only wonder if this is just the start of something bigger that is yet to come…