How much say would Mattrick have had over the design decisions before E3?
Maybe he really believed in the always online model and feels kicked in the nuts now that Microsoft has gone 180.
he is/was the president of their 'Interactive Entertainment Business'. as far as their gaming business went the buck stopped with him. could there have been orders/interference from higher up? sure, but those people tend not to get pushed out the door when things go wrong.
Wow, they are really mad at how he handled this, aren't they?
This quick of a change over probably means this has been in the works for some time.
It's a fitting place for him, though.
Also, re: content/adspace
Being a content creator or service provider does not grant you right to dictate consumer behavior. They can't demand anyone look at anything, change any part of their home entertainment setup, etc. All they are entitled to do is make adjustments and changes on their side that they hope will address the problem.
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syndalisGetting ClassyOn the WallRegistered User, Loves Apple Productsregular
On the internet, advertisers pay in a PPM (basically every 1000 impressions of the ad), or through CTR (click-through ratio). There are no up-front costs.
I really doubt that. You think YouTube lets EA butt an ad for Madden in before every video related to sports and video games for free?
Yep. Every 1000 premium video ad runs has a rate they pay. They pay a higher rate for people who watch longer than the 5 seconds before "skip ad" appears.
They also pay a separate rate if they click on the ad and go to the site. This rate is MUCH higher (depending on the popularity of the keyword that related the ad to the video, they may pay as much as a buck or two if someone clicked through).
Does this mean I should feel guilty when I click the "Skip Ad in 5 Seconds" button as well? I should spend 2.5 minutes watching the newest movie trailer before I see a 15 second clip of a guy getting kicked in the crotch by a toddler because YouTube let him tick a checkbox to "monetize" his video when he uploaded it?
Absolutely not, because the advertiser actually chose to offer the skip in 5 seconds button, in exchange for paying less if the person chooses to skip the ad. But they are still paying money. And this monetization pays for the bandwidth that being able to watch an unlimited number of 1080p videos over the internet without paying for it.
SW-4158-3990-6116
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
Have you found a way to turn off those ads before every video then? How?
When someone's showing me a Youtube video and I see an ad before it I mention that they're easy to avoid, and most people are incredulous.
I don't do anything special, Adblock Plus with default subscription just takes care of it.
And there is a whole other conversation this could easily delve into that is probably outside the scope of the industry thread...
but when you use external software to strip out the revenue generating portion of the service that you still make use of for free, you are in an grey bordering on black area of morality, and your actions should not be considered the normal that we should be striving towards.
Better ads. More focused and targeted ads that generate more revenue for the companies while upsetting and disrupting the consumers less than what we have now. Not something one step removed from content piracy.
You don't half talk some shit. I suppose everyone with a Tivo should be strung up too?
Television advertising is a sunk cost. They sell the ad space to advertisers who in turn don't pay a dime more to the TV network if their ad is successful.
On the internet, advertisers pay in a PPM (basically every 1000 impressions of the ad), or through CTR (click-through ratio). There are no up-front costs.
When you use Tivo, you are not taking money away from the creators of the programming you are watching.
When you use adblock, you are preventing the script that loads the ad, which means that you are bypassing the revenue generating source of the site... and still using the resource for free.
These are two vastly different things.
This is only true in the short term. As the usage of Tivo increases the value of that TV advertising space will decrease as it will have a smaller effective audience. Reducing the amount of money available for programming.
Your argument seems to hinge on the fact that Adblock is bad because it's effect are immediate instead of delayed. Which is a little odd.
Yeah, it really seems shuffling among doomed companies is better than sticking with a successful one for CEO's, you get all the pay and none of the blame. Pretty much the holy grail of the corporate world.
So, just curious... have we actually seen what the Xbone dash will be like and how these ads will be integrated? It could be the ads are actually intelligently integrated and preferable to what we have now. Or it could be hamhandedly done and more annoying. I don't think we actually know yet.
I'm getting flashbacks to the whole "cloud" argument.
I agree with Unclesporky regarding ads, I tend to do minor work to remove them, adblockers and the like, but the biggest reason I hate the increasingly poor interface of the Xbox, is that it seems to slow my machine down.
Starting it up seems to take forever, cut the cable and it boots up far faster, not only do I have to look at stupid ads about World Of Warcraft, McDonalds and other garbage, 6 tiles with ads out of 9 on the main page, that also makes my xbox take ages to load my profile.
I doubt Microsoft will do it better, I'm betting the XBone will make more small tiles that can be filled with even more ads and it will probably slow that machine down too.
XBox has ads for WoW? Do they advertise other PC games as well?
Considering he was almost certainly going to be bumped upstairs to do other stuff due to Ballmer wanting to restructure yeah his handling of the Xbox One likely has resulted in a sudden change of plans that see's him being cut adrift.
That reminds me, Ballmer's about to shake things up at Microsoft.
According to sources close to the situation, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is likely to unveil his plans to restructure the tech giant to a larger group of senior execs around the beginning of July.
That prospect has many top managers at the company worried, since Ballmer has been making these significant plans with limited consultation with the wider leadership group at the software giant. Instead, he has been working with only a small group of his direct reports and also some Microsoft board members, numerous sources said.
That has meant that most senior execs have largely been left out of the decision-making process related to Ballmer’s goal of solidifying Microsoft into the “devices and services company,” that he wrote about in his annual shareholder letter last October.
The impending changes — and the lack of information about them — has made for some level of discomfort inside Microsoft, where many high-ranking managers have been at the company for a very long time.
“It feels like it is going to be titanic — that Steve is doing this change for his legacy,” said one person close to the situation. “And it’s the first time in a long time that it feels like that there will be some major shifts, including some departures.”
Hmmm. This restructuring could be big. Especially since Win 8 is doing horrible and Surface is doing so bad they've instituted a program to sell them for dirt-cheap directly to schools and businesses.
SAN FRANCISCO, July 1, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Zynga Inc. (ZNGA), a leading provider of social game services, today announced that the Company has appointed Don Mattrick as Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors, effective July 8, 2013. Mattrick has been at the forefront of the industry and brings more than 30 years of executive experience developing, building and managing profitable entertainment businesses. Mark Pincus, Zynga's founding chief executive officer, remains Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Product Officer of the Company.
SAN FRANCISCO, July 1, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Zynga Inc. (ZNGA), a leading provider of social game services, today announced that the Company has appointed Don Mattrick as Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors, effective July 8, 2013. Mattrick has been at the forefront of the industry and brings more than 30 years of executive experience developing, building and managing profitable entertainment businesses. Mark Pincus, Zynga's founding chief executive officer, remains Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Product Officer of the Company.
If it means we never have to sit through another one of his amazingly personable and enthusiastic keynotes then it is better news than Microsoft dropping the 24 hour check in.
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.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
Speaking to OXM at Microsoft's Xbox One reveal last month, Xbox product planning boss Albert Penello has downplayed technical comparisons between Xbox One and PS4, arguing that hardware analysis is "meaningless" when "our games and experiences are going to be every bit as good as, if not better" than those you'll find on competing consoles.
Asked whether he was cautious of comparisons with PS4 by our editor Jon Hicks, Penello pointed out that few players really buy consoles for the specs alone. "The problem is that Sony decided to go out and publish a bunch of numbers, which are in some ways meaningless," he told us. "Because this isn't like 1990, when it was 16-bit versus 32-bit.
"As a matter of fact," he continued, "they actually go out and they talk about how proud they are about their off-the-shelf parts. Our guys'll say, we touched every single component in the box and everything there is tweaked for optimum performance."
"For me, I'd rather not even have the conversation, because it's not going to matter," Penello went on. "The box is going to be awesome. The games are going to be awesome. I heard this exact same argument last generation and it's a pointless argument, because people are debating things which they don't know about. They're not [head silicon engineer] Nick Baker or [corporate vice president of IEB hardware Todd Holmdahl], and I'm not [lead PS4 architect] Mark Cerny, so why are we having this discussion?"
Penello feels consumers will pick a console for the games it offers, rather than for its capabilities on paper. "Here's what you care about," he said. "You bought a system to play great games and have great experiences. I feel like our games and experiences are going to be every bit as good, if not better, technically - on top of all the magic we're going to add with the instant switching, and the power of the cloud.
"So the whole numbers game - yeah, I've been following it online and it's like, we tried having that argument last time. Do I want to talk about HDMI 1.3 or 1.4, it's like 'argh!' It doesn't matter. Did you see Call of Duty, it looks f**king awesome! It's going to be great, you know. So we're just saying, it's not worth the debate."
Kind of unnerving to hear someone outside of Nintendo say specs don't matter. Pretty much the way everyone will translate this is "the Xbone isn't as powerful as the PS4."
On the other hand, he's not wrong. Really only we tech nerds really care about specs.
I was agreeing with him before he uttered the phrase that will not die.
Speaking to OXM at Microsoft's Xbox One reveal last month, Xbox product planning boss Albert Penello has downplayed technical comparisons between Xbox One and PS4, arguing that hardware analysis is "meaningless" when "our games and experiences are going to be every bit as good as, if not better" than those you'll find on competing consoles.
Asked whether he was cautious of comparisons with PS4 by our editor Jon Hicks, Penello pointed out that few players really buy consoles for the specs alone. "The problem is that Sony decided to go out and publish a bunch of numbers, which are in some ways meaningless," he told us. "Because this isn't like 1990, when it was 16-bit versus 32-bit.
"As a matter of fact," he continued, "they actually go out and they talk about how proud they are about their off-the-shelf parts. Our guys'll say, we touched every single component in the box and everything there is tweaked for optimum performance."
"For me, I'd rather not even have the conversation, because it's not going to matter," Penello went on. "The box is going to be awesome. The games are going to be awesome. I heard this exact same argument last generation and it's a pointless argument, because people are debating things which they don't know about. They're not [head silicon engineer] Nick Baker or [corporate vice president of IEB hardware Todd Holmdahl], and I'm not [lead PS4 architect] Mark Cerny, so why are we having this discussion?"
Penello feels consumers will pick a console for the games it offers, rather than for its capabilities on paper. "Here's what you care about," he said. "You bought a system to play great games and have great experiences. I feel like our games and experiences are going to be every bit as good, if not better, technically - on top of all the magic we're going to add with the instant switching, and the power of the cloud.
"So the whole numbers game - yeah, I've been following it online and it's like, we tried having that argument last time. Do I want to talk about HDMI 1.3 or 1.4, it's like 'argh!' It doesn't matter. Did you see Call of Duty, it looks f**king awesome! It's going to be great, you know. So we're just saying, it's not worth the debate."
Kind of unnerving to hear someone outside of Nintendo say specs don't matter. Pretty much the way everyone will translate this is "the Xbone isn't as powerful as the PS4."
On the other hand, he's not wrong. Really only we tech nerds really care about specs.
I was agreeing with him before he uttered the phrase that will not die.
I find he odd that he insists that power isn't important, yet Microsoft's battlecry since the One's announcement is how the Power Of The Cloud gives games on their console a major advantage over the PS4.
According to Geoff Keighley's Twitter, Mattrick met with Pincus in April and the role was months in the making. Sourced from a WSJ article I can't actually view:
It makes more sense than the post-E3 reactionary turn from Microsoft that some are speculating. I'd like to see the details if anyone is actually a WSJ subscriber (assuming there is any weight to it).
*Granted, executive transitions seem to be glacial so the 'months' of lead up are unsurprising - I just wonder if the Xbox division's performance last month made the decision a whole lot easier for everyone involved.
Gutterkisser on
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AegeriTiny wee bacteriumsPlateau of LengRegistered Userregular
You know, that does make me wonder if he sort of didn't really give much of a shit then and happily buried them. Given that kind of perspective, I actually feel Microsoft have a pretty legitimate gripe there because his "360 is an offline device" comment was one of the main reasons I just stopped caring about MS as a company. Unfortunately it's too late to change the past or my subsequent actions, but I can at least feel more sympathetic to them if he basically knew he was leaving so didn't get a shit about torpedoing the sinking ship.
My guess is that it was less happily burying them and more absentmindedly answering questions about some other exec's baby while counting all his future Internet dollars.
Looking at this on an actual computer, my above link is garbage even with the mobile part removed.
But hey, apparently Mattrick is doubling down on Zynga and getting 95% of his compensation in stock. I don't pay enough attention to executive earnings to know if that's even interesting, and the info is from 'sources'. Apparently shares of Zynga gained 10% on Monday, so there's that.
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Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
If he knew he was leaving...that puts a pretty terrible light on his E3 presentation, considering how flippant he was with concerns about the Xbox One and its policies. Interesting...although leaving MS to enter the Towering Inferno doesn't seem like it was the best career choice.
Posts
he is/was the president of their 'Interactive Entertainment Business'. as far as their gaming business went the buck stopped with him. could there have been orders/interference from higher up? sure, but those people tend not to get pushed out the door when things go wrong.
This quick of a change over probably means this has been in the works for some time.
It's a fitting place for him, though.
Also, re: content/adspace
Being a content creator or service provider does not grant you right to dictate consumer behavior. They can't demand anyone look at anything, change any part of their home entertainment setup, etc. All they are entitled to do is make adjustments and changes on their side that they hope will address the problem.
Yep. Every 1000 premium video ad runs has a rate they pay. They pay a higher rate for people who watch longer than the 5 seconds before "skip ad" appears.
They also pay a separate rate if they click on the ad and go to the site. This rate is MUCH higher (depending on the popularity of the keyword that related the ad to the video, they may pay as much as a buck or two if someone clicked through).
Absolutely not, because the advertiser actually chose to offer the skip in 5 seconds button, in exchange for paying less if the person chooses to skip the ad. But they are still paying money. And this monetization pays for the bandwidth that being able to watch an unlimited number of 1080p videos over the internet without paying for it.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
Unless the dude really wants a challenge.
They're paying him a bunch of money. Challenge doesn't matter. If he fails he'll get a nice severance package and move on to the next doomed company.
This is only true in the short term. As the usage of Tivo increases the value of that TV advertising space will decrease as it will have a smaller effective audience. Reducing the amount of money available for programming.
Your argument seems to hinge on the fact that Adblock is bad because it's effect are immediate instead of delayed. Which is a little odd.
I've seen Starcraft 2 a few times.
I doubt its "leaving" and rather that he is being "kicked out of" atleast I hope so, Mattrick is insufferable.
Thanks, MS, thanks for making me feel so safe about my next gen purchasing decisions.
Steam: adamjnet
http://allthingsd.com/20130623/update-microsoft-restructuring-nears-as-execs-top-fret-over-their-fate/?mod=atd_homepage_carousel
Hmmm. This restructuring could be big. Especially since Win 8 is doing horrible and Surface is doing so bad they've instituted a program to sell them for dirt-cheap directly to schools and businesses.
ed
Though props to him if he recognizes the issues and fixes them. Corporate culture is the first reform MS needs to make.
He can run, but the disease is inside him.
If it means we never have to sit through another one of his amazingly personable and enthusiastic keynotes then it is better news than Microsoft dropping the 24 hour check in.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
I'm willing to be Don is wanting to retire and the new position would give him a bigger severance package.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
Imagine that.
That makes me want to tinfoil hat like a mofo.
I was agreeing with him before he uttered the phrase that will not die.
I find he odd that he insists that power isn't important, yet Microsoft's battlecry since the One's announcement is how the Power Of The Cloud gives games on their console a major advantage over the PS4.
Maybe they'll both go off to a quiet place and no one will hear from them again.
PSN: Beltaine-77 | Steam: beltane77 | Battle.net BadHaggis#1433
You've all been really bad about that rule.
But ... But where is my Doom
Playstation: Dipuc4Life
Warframe_Switch IGN: ONVEBAL
its in the Cloud now!
http://m.asia.wsj.com/articles/a/SB10001424127887323297504578579932184899670?mg=reno64-wsj
It makes more sense than the post-E3 reactionary turn from Microsoft that some are speculating. I'd like to see the details if anyone is actually a WSJ subscriber (assuming there is any weight to it).
*Granted, executive transitions seem to be glacial so the 'months' of lead up are unsurprising - I just wonder if the Xbox division's performance last month made the decision a whole lot easier for everyone involved.
But hey, apparently Mattrick is doubling down on Zynga and getting 95% of his compensation in stock. I don't pay enough attention to executive earnings to know if that's even interesting, and the info is from 'sources'. Apparently shares of Zynga gained 10% on Monday, so there's that.
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
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