14 DAY TRIAL // A few hours ago, Microsoft and Zynga announced that Don Mattrick, the former leader of the Xbox One division, was leaving to the social game company as chief executive officer, set to oversee all future video game development.
Now, the full text of the e-mail that Steve Ballmer, the chief executive officer of Microsoft, sent to employees explaining the move is available from the official website of the company, offering small glimpses into the motivations behind the move.
Despite the internal nature of the text, most of it is made up of almost impenetrable business language that offers little insight into the reasons that Don Mattrick had or into how Microsoft plans to react to his actions.
Steve Ballmer says that the launch of the Xbox One, which is planned for November of this year, will take place as initially planned and suggests that he will personally oversee the process.
It’s unclear how much involvement the CEO has had with the next generation of consoles until this moment.
At the same time, Ballmer mentions all the technologies, ranging from Bing to SmartGlass, that Microsoft is currently working on for the consumer space.
At Zynga, Don Mattrick is set to try and steer a new course for the social game company, which has failed to keep its dominant position and has seen a slide in revenue and player numbers in the last year.
The Xbox One will offer a new level of computing performance and Microsoft says that the cloud capabilities it will integrate will enable developers to create new gaming experiences.
An initial announcement about Digital Rights Management linked to the console annoyed many fans and a public campaign persuaded Microsoft to eliminate the measures in order to make the new platform more open to game trading and lending.
The full text of the e-mail reads:
"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."