Microsoft Corporation (MSFT)Microsoft's Flight Sim studio hit by lay-offsGamesIndustry - January 23, 2009
Submitted by welshbloke (60)
at 4:01AM PST on January 23, 2009
Microsoft Flight Simulator studio ACES is one of the first outfits to be hit significantly by yesterday's planned job cuts. In addition, a report by Microsoft blogger Mary-Jo Foley suggests that the bulk of the 1400 immediate job cuts announced yesterday are to come from the Entertinament and Devices division – responsible for Xbox 360, Zune and Windows Mobile businesses.
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Interesting--your article says that a large portion of the cuts have been video game testers. I always thought those people were pretty cheap labor--but then they would be the most replaceable when the economy recovers. It's probably harder to get good programmers.
The company's best area is enterprise software so those people should be safe. Windows 7 is supposed to come out soon, so its crunch time for that division. I guess it makes sense, but I'd think canning the Zune is still the best area they could make cuts. Windows Mobile is also mediocre, but that's an important market.