3929

F

Wait, how does Ballmer go from reorganizing the entire company himself, to suddenly retiring? Did he re-org himself out of a job? Normally I’d be happy about this but it has me worried. The Xbox One is on such a good track now, i hope a new CEO doesn’t screw it up… Unless Ballmer was the reason for the Xbox Ones issues in the first place.

3930

Xbox ranks at about #99 of the Top 100 issues for any Microsoft CEO.

3931
3932

And MS stock shot up in value on announcement of his retirement. That has to sting if you’re the guy retiring.

3933

Unlikely. Ballmer owns so much stock that he actually earned $1 billion by his retirement announcement…

edit: $840 million to be exact. In March his net worth was estimated at $15.2 billion.

3934

I think it’s safe to say that money stopped being a concern for him decades ago. People rejoicing at the news of his imminent departure, on the other hand…

3935

And MS just refuses to stop following in Sony’s footsteps. Just hours after Sony announced that they’re giving free PS4s and games to all Gamestop managers, MS has now announced that they’re also giving free Xbox Ones to all Gamestop managers (no mention of games). Lead, Microsoft, lead! :)

3936

What the hell is it with GS. Why do all these game companies cater to them so much but at the same time hate them so much for their used sales. Pick one or the other dammit.

3937

What, you’ve never wanted to hate fuck anyone before?

3938

It’s really quite simple. The vast majority of console games are still sold at brick and mortar. GS has a significant market dominance in B&M retail sales, so are MS and Sony’s most far reaching route to market.

Despite how much they may not like GS various practices, the fact of the matter is that GS can get more consoles and more games to more people across more geographical locations than MS or Sony or GS competitors can.

3939

Look at it this way. Each GameStop manager influences everyone on their staff. Each staff influences the purchasing decisions of hundreds of customers each week. If you get the managers excited about the consoles, they will share that enthusiasm with their staff members, and they with their customers.

Chances are, MS had planned to do that all along, but if they hadn’t, you can be damned sure they were after Sony announced it. Having every store manager have a free PS4 but not an Xbox One would have been a significant disadvantage.

3940

Yeah, there is probably nothing unusual about these guys giving demo consoles to major retail outlets for just this reason, it is probably pretty much SOP. But there is so much media attention on both consoles at the moment, perhaps Sony realised it was also a media opportunity and made some noise about it, ‘beating’ MS to the punch, so to speak.

3941

Isn’t it bribery to offer gifts to someone, based on his/her position in a company?

edit: From the web:

The offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of something of value for the purpose of influencing the action of an official in the discharge of his or her public or legal duties.The expectation of a particular voluntary action in return is what makes the difference between a bribe and a private demonstration of goodwill.

3942

Of course it’s bribery, but gamestop managers aren’t public officials, there’s nothing illegal about it. Once Sony did it, MS was forced to follow suit.

3943

Aha, so its not a legal issue since its companies? I did not know that.

3944

It’s not a legal issue since the GS managers are not government officials. There is a whole different set of rules for working with government policy makers. I just watched 60 min mandated, company-wide ethics video, so I know. :)

3945

It really depends on what company you work for. I work for a multinational company where that kind of gift would be a no no, as pointed out in my contract and the mandatory yearly training on conflicts of interest.

But, as has been pointed out, for private companies, it very much depend on their own policies only.

Wendelius

3946

Retail chains get these types of “home demo” units a lot. The idea is that the store, manager, or department lead for the product needs to use the item to speak authoritatively about it. In the case of electronics it’s a good idea to have someone working at the store that can actually tell a customer how to do the stuff they’re asking about or give an informed opinion. It saves the manufacturer a tech support call for something easy, and it encourages customer loyalty with the store.

Some companies have a policy that the hardware belongs to the store and not the employee, which sidesteps the whole bribery accusation. They stick it in the breakroom or they let employees sign it out and rotate taking it home.

3947

It could certainly get you fired, or sued for breach of contract, but the bribe is not itself illegal.

3948

So did they officially drop the “must be connected to the internt” thing?

Because always connected has nothing to do with connectivity, patches, multiplayer, frinds, or entertainment.

It has everything to do with being advertised to. On the main menu and in game. MS got worse and worse at this as time goes on until 90% of the UI is now streaming ads. And I don’t see that getting better anytime soon.