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Software Microsoft Windows Live Head Among Job Cuts
Shane McGlaun (Blog) - January 26, 2009 10:11 AM

28 comment(s) - last by chizow.. on Jan 28 at 10:30 PM

The manager of Microsoft Games for Windows Live among the employees laid off

Microsoft is still one of the most profitable companies in the technology industry. However, the software giant missed its earning last quarter and took aggressive action to try and prevent that from happening again.

Part of the action that Microsoft took was to announce it would be shedding 5,000 positions from its employee pool. The cuts are affecting some of the people that were key players in Microsoft's PC gaming business.

DailyTech reported last week that the full development team for the long running Microsoft Flight Simulator series had been let go. VentureBeat reports that among the cuts was Microsoft's Chris Early, the head of Game for Windows Live.

Games for Windows Live was the PC-based version of the popular Xbox Live service that lets gamers connect with other players, earn achievements, and access their gamer tag. The service is a huge hit on the Xbox.

However, with Microsoft cutting Early from its roster, PC gamers can assume that the service isn't as popular on the PC. That's not much of a shock when you consider the huge numbers of console gamers compared to PC gamers.

VentureBeat reports that no official comment from Microsoft or Early himself has been made. The exit of Early also brings the Steam-like game download service Microsoft has been working on into question.

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next in line is ...

By vapore0n on 1/26/2009 11:10:47 AM , Rating: 5

the whole Media Center group.

Because they are still in 2005.

RE: next in line is ...

By Staples on 1/26/2009 11:41:29 AM , Rating: 1

I could not agree more.

I have been using Windows Media Center as a DVR for at least two years and it is amazing what is not there. It is improved in Windows 7 but still lacks lots of no brainer features and behaviors. I'd also like to see the Windows Media Player team go bye bye. The Zune software is much better than WMP and it as been around for a whole two years where as WMP has been around for 10 or so.

With that said, I use it because it is free DVR software but other then that, it has nothing on TIVO.

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RE: next in line is ...

By omnicronx on 1/26/2009 12:20:37 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
With that said, I use it because it is free DVR software but other then that, it has nothing on TIVO.

All depends if you have the know how. You can do most things Tivo can do in WMC2005 let alone Windows 7 if you know what you are doing. Although it would be nice if we had these kind of features out of the box.

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RE: next in line is ...

By Heatlesssun on 1/26/2009 3:11:55 PM , Rating: 2

Please tell me on thing that you cannot do in Windows Media Center you can't do with a Tivo? Can you move your Tivo content to a Zune or iPod or whatever. Archive content to DVD. What kind of internet services? What about sling content for free ala Orb.

The only big deficiency in WMC is CableCard restrictions, that sucks.

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RE: next in line is ...

By omnicronx on 1/26/2009 3:27:40 PM , Rating: 2

All of what you are talking about here requires advanced knowledge in MCE. MCE does none of what you mention out of the box. I do agree you can do almost everything Tivo can, but Tivo is basically plug n play.

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RE: next in line is ...

By Heatlesssun on 1/26/2009 3:42:50 PM , Rating: 3

It's not so much advanced knowledge, its simply a matter of knowing about other programs. At any rate, Media Center is really one or Microsoft's quiet successes. There's a VERY big online community devoted to it and think its the best thing since sliced bread. It's in a whole different league than Game for Windows.

I do hope that Microsoft doesn't drop the ball here though. If they want to sell Windows, games go a long way to help sell Windows, not everybody wants an Xbox, PS3, or Wii. They need to keep gaming alive on well on Windows because this is on area that no other desktop OS even comes within a parsec.

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RE: next in line is ...

By Staples on 1/26/2009 3:49:45 PM , Rating: 2

TIVO may not do all the useless web content stuff that WMC does out of the box but TIVO is most certainly a better DVR than WMC. WMC actually works ok if you use it locally at a PC but try using it on an Xbox and even in the best conditions, the way TIVO handles playback in much better. The FF and RW are always out of sync, the whole skip back or forward skipping to the begining/end of a show makes zero sense and it is something they won't be changing any time soon. The video player is absolutely horible. All it supports in MPG1 and WMV and if it isn't one of those two formats, WMC either crashes (and it still does it Windows 7 beta) or it freezes and gives you and error message a minute later.

More than anything, WMC as in Vista needs bug fixes and tweaks more than anything. The internet TV thing is useless because what you get is 15 seconds of commercial, 5 seconds of buffering and then your clip which might be a minute long. The sad thing is that they seem to be expanding on internet TV. I just hope that it will one day be easy and seamless to use (not to mention have actual programming). If they could get hulu to work on this thing, that would be great.

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RE: next in line is ...

By Heatlesssun on 1/26/2009 5:32:18 PM , Rating: 2

Media Center is really geared towards TV and disc play back, for those tasks it works really well, its not a universal media player admittedly though it can play other formats well with the right add ins.

As far as you sync problems I don't have them on any of my three Media Centers, one on Windows 7 beta right now.

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RE: next in line is ...

By KashGarinn on 1/27/2009 6:14:48 AM , Rating: 2

I'd definitely like to see Windows media player team disappear.. *points at the team* The space bar, Have you heard of it? bloody well use it for play/pause you idiots.

It's been a pet peeve of mine ever since the media player came out that they won't have play/pause with the biggest, most comfortable button on the keyboard. It boggles the mind why they have play/pause on a key-combination of ctrl-P instead of just P or the enter button, or just any other non-key-combined way of playing/pausing.

So fire them please, they're idiots and not worth the cost if they can't see that the basic UI is flawed.

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RE: next in line is ...

By Flunk on 1/26/2009 12:18:04 PM , Rating: 2

Windows 7 finally includes the key "seek bar" feature. Seriously, why did it take 6 years to include a seek bar.

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RE: next in line is ...

By quiksilvr on 1/26/2009 7:01:18 PM , Rating: 3

Why doesn't the iPhone have Bluetooth transferring capabilities or copy and paste?

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RE: next in line is ...

By DigitalFreak on 1/26/2009 9:11:18 PM , Rating: 2

Don't blame the drones. Blame the management.

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apples to oranges

By invidious on 1/26/2009 10:53:55 AM , Rating: 5

"That's not much of a shock when you consider the huge numbers of console gamers compared to PC gamers."

Or when you consider that Xbox players have no alternatives while PC alternatives have existed for many years. Xbox live may be good, but its success is mainly due to it being the only show in town, windows live does not share the same fortune.

RE: apples to oranges

By afkrotch on 1/26/2009 11:15:58 AM , Rating: 5

Pretty much. On PC, why would anyone want to bother with Games for Windows Live? All online multiplayer games for PC have their own online services and some of the games have their own achievements. If they don't, no PC gamer would care.

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RE: apples to oranges

By chizow on 1/27/2009 1:12:07 AM , Rating: 4

That's the biggest problem imo, every company is pushing its own services and online distribution so that PC gaming online is extremely disjointed and fragmented. XBox Live is great because everyone on a 360 flows through it. Steam is the closest thing to a universal system on the PC, followed by something like B.net due to extreme popularity of a handful of Blizzard titles, but there's still nothing close to uniting all PC gamers under one service/community.

Microsoft actually had a shot at establishing a Live service for the PC nearly a decade ago, but they ultimately decided to push their own hardware and controlled service with the XBox and Live. Most people here probably don't remember, but MS came out with a horrible alternative to the relatively weak online services at the time with Microsoft Gaming Zone competing against the likes of Mplayer.com, GameSpy, Heat.net, and of course B.net.

Such a wasted opportunity, and they never made any real attempt to bridge the gap between XBox Live and GFW Live until this year. Now that Early got canned, GFW Live will die off and pass off into obscurity, again, I'm sure.

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RE: apples to oranges

By afkrotch on 1/28/2009 9:01:25 AM , Rating: 2

quote:
That's the biggest problem imo, every company is pushing its own services and online distribution so that PC gaming online is extremely disjointed and fragmented. XBox Live is great because everyone on a 360 flows through it. Steam is the closest thing to a universal system on the PC, followed by something like B.net due to extreme popularity of a handful of Blizzard titles, but there's still nothing close to uniting all PC gamers under one service/community.

That's just it. Why would any PC gamer care? The benefit of PCs is the fact that it's more open. I'm not tied down to someone's service or their servers.

The only thing I'd want unified is patches. A single location for all patches for all PC games.

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RE: apples to oranges

By chizow on 1/28/2009 10:30:13 PM , Rating: 2

PC gamers should care given the vast difference in quality between different services and the mere fact this automatically fragments gamers and the gaming community.

You can already see other comments about Steam and XBox Live being far superior services, but their superiority isn't just from design or services provided, they're superior because more people actually use the service.

Most games do have their own service, and most of them are horrible. Look at FPS lobbies or server listings for example. These horrible designs and implementations haven't changed for over a decade. Instead of having to log in or be locked into a single game interface, you could log into a single interface and choose which of many games to play from there.

If you look at something like UT3 and its lack of success, something like a unified service may have helped it, as gamers wouldn't feel as if they're wasting time looking for games/servers to join. I could log into a GFW Live account/lobby, and if I saw people playing UT3, I could join, if not, I could go play some COD4 or 5 or whatever else....

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RE: apples to oranges

By Proteusza on 1/26/2009 1:34:21 PM , Rating: 3

Agreed.

Steam does everything GFWL does, only for free. Gee, which one would you choose?

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RE: apples to oranges

By Staples on 1/26/2009 3:35:05 PM , Rating: 3

I do not think Live for Windows cost anything anymore. But even if it did, that is not why it fails. There are so few games on it that it has very very little appeal when compared to Steam. I have never used Windows Live games but if they really work like XBL does where you have a single game tag and every game uses the same friends list, it could be a hit if there were more than a handful of games using the "system".

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Their own fault

By rburnham on 1/26/2009 11:38:58 AM , Rating: 3

Games for Windows Live, as it is now is just a way to automatically patch those games, get achievements and play online. Perhaps PC gamers expected all of what makes Xbox Live fun, like access to Netflix, movie trailers, all those downloadable games (Castle Crashers, Braid, etc). Had MS given us the full "Live" experience on the PC, things might have been different. Of course, that would have eaten into their sales of 360s, even though you needed a Microsoft OS to use Games for Windows. I understand why they did it from a business stand point, but I can see how PC gamers would feel cheated.

RE: Their own fault

By Whaaambulance on 1/26/2009 11:52:54 AM , Rating: 2

I always assumed that Windows Live games would allow you to play games with 360 players. At least, I think that is how it should have been. I really do not believe it would cut into any sales.

Most people buy consoles because they lack the knowledge of PC's or have no need other than playing games. Also budgets come into play. Why drop $2000+ on a PC when the 360 serves their purpose and last many more years without having to upgrade.

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RE: Their own fault

By Bateluer on 1/26/2009 1:38:12 PM , Rating: 3

Games for Windows Live is a joke. Its an utter failure on the PC, as it should be. If MS wants start their own competitor to Valve's Steam and StarDock's Impulse, then they have a LOT of catching up to do.

On a slightly unrelated note, when I bought Fallout 3 off Steam last week, it installed Games for Windows Live during the install. I promptly uninstalled it without any apparent effects.

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Misleading title...

By mikecel79 on 1/26/2009 11:01:10 AM , Rating: 4

The title of this article makes it sound like the head of all the Live services was let go in the job cuts which would be huge news. In actuality it's only the manager of the Games for Windows Live service was let go.

RE: Misleading title...

By Heatlesssun on 1/26/2009 3:46:38 PM , Rating: 1

Judging by these comments it looks like this was a good decision.

Microsoft needs to begin to flex its muscle. I think when they try, they aren't trying. There no reason that they can't do better with the Zune for instance. But I'm starting to see some signs here. Live Mesh is intriguing.

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head of game

By omnicronx on 1/26/2009 12:17:59 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
Microsoft's Chris Early, the head of Game for Windows Live.

How much game do you need to become the head of Game?

RE: head of game

By consumerwhore on 1/26/2009 1:06:16 PM , Rating: 2

More game than Bill Games.

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heres why

By LumbergTech on 1/27/2009 5:10:05 AM , Rating: 2

its quite simple why GFW isnt popular in comparison to xbox live

it adds an extra layer of pain in the ass, on xbox it is the ONLY way to play online..on PC its just an annoyance

Live Head?

By Dreifort on 1/26/2009 2:04:10 PM , Rating: 1

So Microsoft has Live Heads....that means Apple has?

Dead Heads? (no phun intended toward Job's health)

I always thought Apple had a bunch of hippies working there.