14 DAY TRIAL // At the start of the week Don Mattrick, the Microsoft executive leading the team in charge of the Xbox One, announced that he was leaving his position in order to become the chief executive officer at social game developer Zynga.
Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft, praised his contribution to the company and Mark Pincus, the founder of Zynga, also foresaw a bright future for him in his new job.
Analysts quickly pointed out that one man is not fundamental to the launch of the Xbox One and that the process should not be affected in any significant way.
But many gamers cannot escape one simple question: why would anyone jump ship to Zynga, a company widely seen as in decline, when he has a chance to handle the launch of the Xbox One, the next-generation console from behemoth Microsoft?
One potential reason is that somewhere a major flaw is lurking, ready to scuttle the deployment of the new platform and Don Mattrick chose to make his move before he can be blamed for the potential disaster.
The always-on requirement for the Xbox One represented a big crisis for the company and its change of position, under public pressure, was huge news.
What if the company executed that stunning reversal because it knows there’s an even deeper potential flaw that they will be unable to address before launch?
Rumors say that Microsoft is spending plenty of money on exclusive titles and there’s a lot of talk about the power of the cloud to enhance games.
But Microsoft also had an initial reveal for the Xbox One focused heavily on entertainment and media delivery and that might be the Achilles heel of the device.
Maybe Don Mattrick knows that at the November launch the new console will be more of a media box than a gaming platform and chose to move to a company that only cares about games, even if they are in social form.