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RUMOR: Microsoft to cut many jobs, including Xbox EU marketing (could reach 12K cuts)

nynt9

Member
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-...o-announce-job-cuts-as-soon-as-this-week.html

Taken from this thread on the other side: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=855370

The reductions -- which may be unveiled as soon as this week -- will probably be in areas such as Nokia and divisions of Microsoft that overlap with that business, as well as marketing and engineering

The restructuring may end up being the biggest in Microsoft history, topping the 5,800 jobs cut in 2009

Some of the job cuts will be in marketing departments for businesses such as the global Xbox team, said the people. The European Xbox team is based in Reading, U.K.

lock if old.

Doesn't sound like a lot of Xbox game development personnel is being cut, but it's odd that EU marketing is being cut considering they need to do better in that market.


Update 1: The Verge says they might be cutting 12k jobs http://www.theverge.com/2014/7/15/5900763/microsoft-job-cuts-rumors

For context, they have 127k employees, cutting 12k would remove 10% of their workforce
 
Hopefully Yusef is on the chopping block as well. The man just never says the right things when someone has a microphone in his face.

Still terrible people are losing their jobs. At least game development isn't hurt by this if you want to find some silver lining.

Also, MS just needs to overhaul their entire marketing and public relation teams.
 
Doesn't sound like a lot of Xbox game development personnel is being cut, but it's odd that EU marketing is being cut considering they need to do better in that market.
The market/consumers have already spoken, seems like a wise decision to me.
 

manual4

Banned
Hopefully Yusef is on the chopping block as well.

lol, bit cruel man.

Doesn't sound like a lot of Xbox game development personnel is being cut, but it's odd that EU marketing is being cut considering they need to do better in that market.

What matters more is how your marketing, not how many are sitting ducks pushing the same ineffective message. This is a restructuring, which will likely lead to a change in leadership and focus.
 

cw_sasuke

If all DLC came tied to $13 figurines, I'd consider all DLC to be free
Hopefully Yusef is on the chopping block as well.

Nothing amusing about people loosing their jobs. Especially not just because GAF doesnt like them.

But yeah Xbox Marketing in europe has to be tough right now.
 
MS email to employees "Unemployment is just a perception challenge that must be fixed"



But MS uses pretty much the same ads across EU and US. (compared to Sony which has 2 completely different ad teams doing completely different campaigns and styles)

I cant imagine this will effect them that much.
 

SFenton

Member
The Nokia cuts don't surprise me in the least, seeing as how MS has the WPhone teams to basically take care of that end.
 
Most of the cuts will be due to integration of Nokia's hardware division.

They are also in the process of consolidating their marketing teams to a more central marketing division that covers all products and services instead of different product groups having their own marketing teams.
 

fedexpeon

Banned
I don't understand how MS is doing so poorly in EU.
Their main bread and butter are FPS and car IPs...I thought EU love that stuff.

Oh well, they should try and steal some of the Ubisoft marketing team members if they want to grow the EU market.
 
I don't understand how MS is doing so poorly in EU.
Their main bread and butter are FPS and car IPs...I thought EU love that stuff.
Europe is a huge Gran Turismo and (soon) DRIVECLUB fanbase. The only FPS that really matters on consoles in Europe is Modern/Future Warfare so...
 
Hopefully Yusef is on the chopping block as well. The man just never says the right things when someone has a microphone in his face.
EBC89mW.gif
 
Why would you want someone to lose their job? What's wrong with you?

Because the guy is fucking horrible at his job and I'm saying this as someone who likes MS and the Xbox team. Him and Mattrick almost cost them permanently and they're still just now turning things around. But he still open his mouth and says the dumbest shit like people aren't buying Xbox Ones because they're too satisfied with the 360.


Same. I want incompetent people who STILL spew bullshit to lose their jobs. Nobody wants good, hardworking honest people to lose their jobs.
 
Doesn't sound like a lot of Xbox game development personnel is being cut, but it's odd that EU marketing is being cut considering they need to do better in that market.

They obviously need to make some drastic changes there. Still, correct me if I'm wrong, but nowhere in the article does it claim that jobs will be cut in the European marketing department specifically.
 

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
MS email to employees "Unemployment is just a persecution challenge that must be fixed"

You do realise he said "perception challenge", right? Microsoft wasn't complaining about the X1 being unfairly judged in the ever-perpetual resolution debate, just arguing that the difference between, say, 900p and 1080p isn't all that great.
 

FeiRR

Banned
Microsoft doesn't know how compete with a company. Microsoft buys a company because they have a lot of cash. Microsoft fires employees of the company in a said country and replaces them with their own employees who know nothing about local markets. That's how it's been going on for decades. Next time when you wonder why we don't love Microsoft in Europe, don't even think about consoles. It has nothing to do with them.
 

nynt9

Member
Did you stealth edit your post I swear I did not see that lol :p

You can look at the bottom right corner of the post and see that there's no "edited" sign, so no.

They obviously need to make some drastic changes there. Still, correct me if I'm wrong, but nowhere in the article does it claim that jobs will be cut in the European marketing department specifically.

It says global marketing team, then mentions the UK office. I don't know why the EU office is mentioned otherwise.
 

David___

Banned
If you put Microsoft employee numbers side-by-side when they do a better job after the cut with less people, then unless you are talking about MS going bankrupt, I defy you to really see the difference. I personally struggle to see the difference.

Hope those that are effected land on their feet.
 

Rad-

Member
Most of those will be Nokia jobs. It's funny how when they bought Nokia they said no jobs will be lost. It was a super obvious lie.
 
How long has Nadella been in post now? I don't follow businesses closely, but it doesn't seem unusual for a new CEO to make some cuts a few months into their role. Always shitty to see people lose their jobs though. My friend's husband does a lot of contract work for Xbox UK, so I hope he's okay.
 

nynt9

Member
I'm sorry nynt9 :(

My post was misleading in the end

It's ok, I forgive you because you have X in your avatar :p

Most of those will be Nokia jobs. It's funny how when they bought Nokia they said no jobs will be lost. It was a super obvious lie.

The whole Nokia acquisition shebang was just an awful example of corporate politics. In the end the average hardworking employees lose out.
 
I wouldn't be surprised if MS intends to outsource their European marketing to external European advertising firms there to try and get better footing.
 
Microsoft doesn't know how compete with a company. Microsoft buys a company because they have a lot of cash. Microsoft fires employees of the company in a said country and replaces them with their own employees who know nothing about local markets. That's how it's been going on for decades. Next time when you wonder why we don't love Microsoft in Europe, don't even think about consoles. It has nothing to do with them.

This is very standard for an acquisition like this. Not only do you have redundancies and a new structure to implement when integration the new company, but the Nokia hardware division is also huge in terms of number of employees.

Restructuring and streamlining their hardware division with the implementation is the only thing that makes sense.


Obviously sucks for the employees that will lose their jobs, but this is how these things work.
 

Jack cw

Member
Are they also hiring by chance? If not the Xbox brand could really lose some steam in Europe.
I'm sorry to say this but the brand never had any steam in EU to begin with. They need better concepts and people who are going away from that US centric marketing to a more grounded and appealing approach to Europeans.
 

theWB27

Member
Because the guy is fucking horrible at his job and I'm saying this as someone who likes MS and the Xbox team. Him and Mattrick almost cost them permanently and they're still just now turning things around. But he still open his mouth and says the dumbest shit like people aren't buying Xbox Ones because they're too satisfied with the 360.



Same. I want incompetent people who STILL spew bullshit to lose their jobs.

So basically you'd be the guy who didn't want anyone around with a different opinion than yours. Makes for a shitty boss.

the-dictator-review_320.jpg
 

Seik

Banned
Nothing amusing about people loosing their jobs. Especially not just because GAF doesnt like them.

But yeah Xbox Marketing in europe has to be tough right now.


He's right though, everything that Yusef says rubs me the wrong way since he's there and I'm not alone to think like that.

The way he sees the future of gaming seems to be the opposite of what many of us want. Sure, I don't wish anyone to lose his/her job, but Yusef is outright terrible at his position so far and would only bring the Xbox brand in a worse position.

Unless you want one of these people that sees microtransactions as innovation.
 

KHlover

Banned
Why would you want someone to lose their job? What's wrong with you?

Seems like every time that guy opens his mouth Xbox loses potential customers, clearly not fit for a job like he currently has. Outright firing him would be a bit harsh though (even if understandable, lots of people get fired for less), I'd say relieve him of his current duties and give him a new job in PR where he doesn't have to make direct statements toward customers.
 

DOWN

Banned
lock if old.

Doesn't sound like a lot of Xbox game development personnel is being cut, but it's odd that EU marketing is being cut considering they need to do better in that market.


Except they probably have a lot of Nokia EU teams now.
 
So basically you'd be the guy who didn't want anyone around with a different opinion than yours. Makes for a shitty boss.

the-dictator-review_320.jpg

If I was a boss of a gaming company and the chief marketing officer for said gaming system constantly showed that his views for the system were being rejected by the main userbase and constantly opened his mouth and repeated the same anti-gamer, anti-consumer garbage and was always rejected very loudly, then yeah, I would fire him or at the very least demote him to a much more insignificant position.
 
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