Former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop to Lead Microsoft's Xbox Division | |
Former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop to Lead Microsoft's Xbox Division  Stephen Elop will head Devices and Studios division, with Julie Larson-Green leaving her role to serve as Chief Experience Officer for Microsoft's My Life & Work team. An internal memo obtained by Techcrunch on Monday, February 24 describes how Stephen Elop will join Microsoft following the acquisition of Nokia's Devices and Services business. Microsoft announced the $7.2 billion deal to buy out Nokia's smartphone division in September. The memo, sent by Microsoft Executive Vice President Julie Larson-Green, confirms that she has been meeting regularly with Elop in preparation for him to transition to Microsoft and to lead the Devices and Studios division. The Devices and Studios division is responsible for Xbox, Surface, games, and entertainment. After the Nokia deal closes, Larson-Green will be leaving her current role as head of the Devices and Studios division to serve as Chief Executive Officer for the My Life & Work team in the Applications and Services Group. "As hard as it is for me to leave Devices & Studios, I'm thrilled about this opportunity," says Larson-Green in the memo. "I'm looking forward to developing the Digital Life & Digital Work Experience Substrate that powers modern digital experiences regardless of device, as well as working across [Applications and Services Group] to strengthen customer experiences." Larson-Green also made note of the work accomplished during her time as head of the Devices and Studios division. "I want to thank each and every one of you for welcoming me and supporting me as the leader of Devices & Studios over the past 7 months. I'm very proud of what we have accomplished during such a short timeframe. We launched Xbox One, Surface 2 & Pro 2, blockbuster games like Forza and Ryse, a brand new Xbox Music and Video service, PPI, and some amazing unannounced innovations just to name a few - incredibly impressive!" Larson-Green will continue to lead the Devices and Studios division until Elop joins Microsoft. Elop is no stranger to Microsoft. He previously worked as Microsoft's Business Division before moving on to become CEO of Nokia. Elop was also one of the eight candidates considered to replace Microsoft's Steve Ballmer. Satya Nadella, a twenty year Microsoft veteran, was selected and appointed as CEO on February 4. Source: Games Industry International | |
Well that's just fantastic, I'ms ure the Xbox division will thrive as well as Nokia's windows phone business did under this gentleman | |
Yeah, this is a sad day for the gaming industry. These corporations, man. They keep putting people who know nothing about the video game industry in charge of the video game industry. | |
Yeah because its not like he knows how to run a world wide production and distribution system of electronic devices or anything. You dont have to know about how to make TV shows to manufacture televisions. | |
I thought it was the push towards the Windows platform that did Nokia in, but then I searched 'Stephen Elop.' Good grief. Well it was nice knowing you Xbone, take heart that you at least out of the running for the wooden spoon as I doubt the WiiU can drag itself fast enough to overtake you without coughing up a lung. So! Who's up for round 9?
This guy managed to drive Nokia into the ground and had another company file for chapter 11 bankruptcy. Oh Nokia and another company were bought out under him. And now he's going to lead a division which investors want sold. | |
You're missing the point. There's a ton of people who know how to run a world wide production and distribution. But you should know something about the actual industry and the audience you're selling to. I didn't say that he has to know how to make the Xbone or a video game. But he should know what the consumers want if he's going to try to sell his product. Guys like him care only about the shareholders. Guys like him are the reason the Xbone reveal was such a freakin' disaster. | |
Yeah, that's the part that makes me wary. This guy is largely responsible for the failure of Nokia, and more, and now he is going to be in charge of a division that many in Microsoft want to sell off. This does not inspire confidence in the longevity of the brand. It almost seems like they are trying to set up Xbox to fail. | |
Oh...oh why did Microsoft put him in charge!? | |
Stephen Elop is considered the one who destroyed Nokia... Nokia was the leading mobile phone manufacturer for over a decade, he came into the business in 2010, refused any Android deal in favor of their in-house, ancient, broken, loathsome OS Symbian; Then he plans a new strategy: To recover from a 92% profit loss year on year Nokia will be teaming up with the least popular, lowest market share, barely established OS Windows phone. Good job Stephen, you truly are a visionary, in the same way that I envision an impromptu self-taught fire breathing lesson while drunk being a good idea | |
Some say that Elop was sent to Nokia to cause it's downfall, and make them cheaper to buy. But that is only the opinion of some conspiracy obsessed Finns. This is a bad choice, I seem to remember that Elop's vision for M$ was that they should sell everything that is not office and windows, that means skype, xbox, tablets and phones everything trimmed down. | |
But... but I thought Nokias were indestructible. I guess only the pre-Elop Nokias were indestructible? Poor X-Box. It doesn't even have indestructibility to save it. | |
Good grief. Ok, where do I go to put in my own bid for the job? I just continue to be baffled by what I am seeing. Is it REALLY that difficult to understand that you need someone that understands gaming, to be in charge of gaming? It seems like every day something comes up that just makes me want to bang my head on the desk repeatedly. | |
The guy who killed Nokia in charge of xbox division? Well that'll end well. | |
He isn't there for gaming. He's there to sell the xbox brand. Between his history as a businessman, the investor pressure Microsoft is facing to get out of hardware, and what he had planned if he'd become CEO, it's pretty obvious. I'm kind of curious if an xbox without Microsoft will continue to be viable. | |
Didin't he say he'd sell the X-box division and focus on licencing if he becomes Microsoft's next CEO a while back? | |
It wouldn't surprise me, honestly. The fact M$ hired back the guy who sunk the damn company is the biggest tell to me; otherwise, why hire back the fox to guard their henhouse? In any case, Microsoft needed experience and talent in the smart-device market.
Agreed, Xbone users should take note; prospective Xbone customers, well, beware. Again, I would not be surprised if Elop's long term task is preparing stripping the distributable assets (software and firmware mainly; any platform related work that can be integrated into Windows or licensed to other platforms especially) and preparing the rest of the division for sale a couple years down the line. It's no secret that many investors and upper brass in M$ want to see the division sold. Which isn't to say development won't occur in that time; anything to bolster its value (and appeal) to prospective buyers. | |
Armour Piercing Xbone Rounds? This will turn the Xbox brand into the strongest console the world has ever seen. As in break the face of a bear strong... I might buy a console now... | |
so they're appointing the guy who was rumored to consider selling off the XBox brand head of the XBox brand. This is probably not going to go over well. | |
Whether or not he knew how to run it, he certainly didn't since he ran the company into the ground. What's more, he appears to have done so on purpose. The sad thing is that Nokia employees were convinced from the beginning he was a mole. http://www.winrumors.com/nokia-employees-still-worried-that-elop-is-a-microsoft-mole/ And they were right. What this means for Xbox, I don't claim to know, but if I were Larson-Green I would be updating my resume. She got screwed. | |
Seems like more nails in the coffin to me. Given all the new head honchos at MS are people who stated they don't want the Xbox division, I wouldn't be surprised if they did sell it. I heard an interesting rumor that Amazon might be buyer, which could be interesting. Maybe a competitive company like Amazon will finally put Sony's $1 off psn sales prices and Nintendo's $20 for 3 decades old games to shame. Not to mention the way they price their Kindles could lead to cheaper Xb1's without the fat like the kinect camera. I'm kinda looking forward to a post-Balmer Microsoft | |
Goodness no. Windows 8 on phones is actually quite nice to use, it's snappy and responsive with a lot of nice, strong functionality inside. It's not great if you spend alot of time using your phone but it's decidedly efficient, having particularly good unifcation of your mail accounts and such. Elop is just an awful awful man. Edit: Also, the investors don't necessarily want Xbox sold, so much as they want it to exists as a seperate entity from Microsoft's business activities (office, skydrive, etc). Rather, to spin it off into it's own ludicrous subsidiary of sorts. | |
Okay, since this is pretty obviously the first step to selling, let's speculate: who is willing and able to buy? Sony and Nintendo would both be happy to just eliminate it, but neither is in a position to make that purchase right now. One suggestion I've heard is Samsung. I'm reasonably certain they're able, and they know how to make some hardware, so while I won't call it more than a guess, it seems viable. Would be interesting to see a major game system being made by a Korean company. | |
We all know Elop's history with Nokia, but... can he really be worse than Don Mattrick? | |
Don Mattrick wanted the Xbox to exist. Elop doesn't. So...well, it really depends. If he sells it to a company that actually does well with it, that could be okay, I guess. But if it ends up in worse hands (or if nobody's buying), that might be a different story. | |
The way I understand it, Nokia was internally in trouble before Stephen stepped in. However, the way he handled things could have been done much better, unless his intention really was to cut down the share value. Burning platforms aside, the whole marketing message of "everything we have on the market now is crap and won't be supported, but wait a year and we'll have some great things" isn't the way to do business. Compare that to Apple's "yeah, we have this thingy that sells well, but we'll stop selling it because look, we have this new hotness that's available in stores now!". .. or that's how apple did things while Jobs was still around, anyway. | |
May as well hire Bob from accounting to act as a play-tester. Oh sure, he could do it, but there'd be about a million people better-suited. | |
So hiring the guy that ran nokia into the ground to run Xbox into the ground. Looks like Microsoft is doing world a favour now :)
I dont think XboxOne death is sad. On the contrary, its the worst platform we have and is holding things down.
Considering that he ran Nokia into the ground, no, he doesnt.
well, to be honest Xbox One seems trying as hard as possible to suicide without flat out shutting down. its like everything the higher ups there do are doing more harm than good.
old nokias were indestructible. new ones as brittle as any other phone. even more so from what little anecdotal evidence i saw.
They tried.
i dont use it myself but people that do tell me its pretty much impossible to turn off apps like skype. like, at all. the girl is complaining about skype eating her bandwitch and windwos phone simply restarting it every time she turns it off. | |
I'm sorry, but anyone who wishes to see the xbox fail go out of business has lost their mind. That, to me, is the very bottom of the rung of extremism. Let the Wii U and the Xbox One go out of business, and when your only option is Sony, its not going to work out for consumers in the long run. They will have no one challenging them, and will be able to basically dictate to console owners what they can and cannot have. If you think Sony is so altruistic that they wouldnt do it, then you need to wake up. Also, while I am willing to admit as an xbox fan that I am not happy with alot of their decisions lately, you seem to forget that they are still selling like crazy, and are having their biggest console launch yet. As others have already said, its simply overshadowed because the PS4 is selling even better. I can also assure you that the PS4 is selling as good as it is BECAUSE of the Xbox One, and their mistakes with this launch, which further proves my point. The PS4 would be a very different thing if they hadnt seen the pitchforks and torches forming around Microsoft, and I have no doubt of that. I do not like Sony, and I will never own a Playstation, and I want the Xbox to be the best console in the business... however, I am not going to EVER wish for the competition to go out of business, because its insanity. | |
A console that has been a loss, employs anticonsumer practices with attempt to go to extremes with that, is more of a TV center than games console and is holding the market back with obsolete at launch hardware. Sure i want it to fail. And no i havent lost my mind either. PS4 may be selling well because its the only console with at least pretense of being for the consumers rather than against them. Console players is not a zero sum game. Xbox loosing costumers does not automatically mean playstation gaining them or the other way around. When a bad company is doing bad things they should be pushed out of business by better company doing better things. At the moment Xbox is the bad company. Keeping bad people around only spoils it for the rest of the bunch. You know the saying, one rotten apple... | |
I've managed to shut off apps likew Skype just fine, and as for eating bandwidth she must have some shitty connection bottleneck somerwhere. And the restarting thing I dunno what to tell you, it's always gone off when I've told it. | |
Yeah but it would help if they watched TV at least once a week, so they can get an idea of what television watchers are looking for in a TV. | |
Again, I am sorry, but the One is not a loss, nor is it losing Microsoft money. Its also not a failure. Plus, you tossed in a jab at the 360, which was NOT a failure at all. It was ultimately the better console of the last gen, for alot of reasons, and the only reason it wasnt better than it was, in my opinion, was because of the hardware issues. Also, I didnt ignore handhelds, or the PC, as this particular conversation had nothing to do with them and everything to do with consoles. Consoles would be the Xbox 360/One, PS3/PS4, and the Wii/Wii U. You are straying from my point, entirely. Also you make it like the Xbox has done nothing but fail, and that is completely wrong. As I recall, the PS3 was in the exact same situation as the One is now, last gen at launch... except... the One has probably sold more at launch than the PS3 did. | |
well, maybe she just doesnt know how to use it then.
They are selling at a loss. XboxOne software hasto recoup that AND its research and developement costs. Also the costs of thier first failed APU design. Xbox division as a whole even with its extortionate Live costs is still a loss when summed up. here look at this article http://www.neowin.net/news/report-microsofts-xbox-division-has-lost-nearly-3-billion-in-10-years Your point was tat there is only Xbox or PS as an option and as such it was flawed to begin with, therefore i expanded it to be more realistic with involving most of the gaming market. yet you still cling to that incorrect assumtion that consoles are all we should care about. thier are not. if anything they seem to be the cancer of gaming now. | |
Elop is an agent that devalues something to be bought or sold. Its been said in nokia's case, its being said now. He devalued Nokia so M$ can buy it and he gets a cushy job. If I had to guess, someone is putting him up to make xbox seem so awful that there is no choice but to shut it down. Its been said time and time again Microsoft's internal affairs are spiteful and trying to sabotage the company by trying to destroy other divisions you don't work for is seen as better than working to make it better together. Its easier to blame Elop than to get up in balmer's and Gate's face directly. So its clear xbox is done, and they are looking for a way to distract the two biggest liabilities the company has enough to cut the crap. Its like this: "Oh no your statue of a dick that I hate so much got smashed by a random asshole! Oh no, not like I wanted this to happen and paid him to do it even though I really did! Oh no!" | |