Microsoft Game Director Adam Orth Resigns Following Xbox Comments

DavidGilbert99 writes "According to anonymous sources, Microsoft's game director Adam Orth has left the company following a series of comments on Twitter about the rumoured always-on aspect of the next generation Xbox console. It is still unclear if Orth left voluntarily or was pushed out but either way it's not good news for Microsoft." If you'd prefer your news without obnoxious auto-playing video ads (with sound!), IGN reports Orth's departure, too.

Comments

Fantastic.

[popoutman]

This is one appropriate course of action for someone in that position that made those comments. However it should have been treated publicly as a firing offence though instead of a graceful exit, as most companies I know would have seen these communications as an example of gross incompetence and would have treated accordingly.

Re:Fantastic.

[JDG1980]

If Orth had been a rank-and-file developer, then firing him for these comments would have been overkill. But he's in a management role high enough in the Xbox hierarchy that anything he says in public might be interpreted as representing the company's official position. For someone like this, generating good PR is actually supposed to be a part of their job – and he obviously isn't any good at that. In Stan Lee's immortal words, with great power there must always come great responsibility.

Re:Fantastic.

[gameboyhippo]

Sometimes a person can be both gracious and just. Nobody is perfect and will make mistakes in their career. So if we would not like to be publically humiliated, why call on Microsoft to publically humiliate Orth? So what if it's a PR disaster. Things happen.

If you're just upset about Microsoft's always on DRM, then buy a Wii U or PS4.

Re:Fantastic.

[nitehawk214]

If a rank and file employee says "deal with it" to their customers on a very public forum, and it generates large amount of negative media buzz, you can damn well bet they are going to be fired.

Re:Fantastic.

[spleck]

Exactly. He had "Microsoft Studios Creative Director" as his title on Twitter. If you don't want to appear to be speaking for the company you work for, don't slap your title on there.

Re:Fantastic.

[ozmanjusri]

why call on Microsoft to publically humiliate Orth?

Exactly. he deserves our support, not this tarring and feathering. At least he was honest and said what others at Microsoft clearly thought and intended, but were too sly to admit publicly. Those sly, dishonest people are the only ones who've been damaged by his comments..

Thanks to him, potential buyers of this product know what they're facing. Any potential customers here should be thanking him for giving them the heads-up.

Re:Fantastic.

[UnknownSoldier]

Oh how naive! Where have you been all last year ...

Counter-example: Blizzard's Diablo 3 Directory Jay Wilson

Re:Fantastic.

[Tridus]

When he started saying stuff like "why would anyone want to live there?" in response to comments about not having quality broadband available everywhere in the US, he stepped across the line into general jackass territory.

Re:Why not?

[MickyTheIdiot]

I say this because I'd be surprised if Microsoft do go the always on DRM route, I don't think even MS is that stupid, but time will tell I guess.

Stupid might not be the right word. "Being stuck inside the corporate bubble" but be better. "Arrogant" might be another.

Talking of ads ...

[magic maverick]

I'm going off topic here, but I want to make a complaint. /. has gone down hill since being bought by Dice. In the old days /. would make it clear if there was some relationship between /. a site it linked to (e.g. "Slashdot and SourceForge are both part of OSDN"). However, now this doesn't happen any more. And it should. Not only that, if a submitter is related to Dice or to /., it should be made clear. And if you are only linking to an article on /. (e.g. in the ridiculous BI or SlashCloud sections) it should also be made clear.

Now mod me down (I shall become more powerful than you can imagine).

The Question is:

[Nyder]

How does MS feel about an always on Internet Requirement for all games on the Xbox? Obviously the customers don't like it, but does MS care what it's customers want?

Re:The Question is:

[JDG1980]

Obviously the customers don't like it, but does MS care what it's customers want?

If they did, they wouldn't have released Windows 8.

If new Xbox requires always on internet connection

[Spy Handler]

I'm not buying that shit. Neither should you.

Re:If new Xbox requires always on internet connect

[Chrisq]

I'm not buying that shit. Neither should you.

You obviously don't have kids saying "Dad, can I have an x-box", answer: "no".......
Kid: "Dad, can I have an x-box", answer: "no".......
Kid: "Dad, can I have an x-box", answer: "no".......
Kid: "Dad, can I have an x-box", answer: "no".......
Kid: "Dad, can I have an x-box", answer: "no".......
Kid: "Dad, can I have an x-box", answer: "no".......
Kid: "Dad, can I have an x-box", answer: "no".......
....
Kid: "Dad, can I have an x-box", answer: "no".......
Kid: "Dad, can I have an x-box", answer: "oh fuck it! I'll get one for your birthday".......

Re:If new Xbox requires always on internet connect

[Dancindan84]

Except the problem for MS isn't parents who will say, "No." It's parents who will say, "No. We're getting a PS4 instead because it has 99% of the same games and doesn't have absurd DRM requirements."

Other comments were insulting

[EMG at MU]

The comments cited by TFA weren't the problem in my opinion. He has a unpopular viewpoint on a subject that a lot of his former employer's customer base feels strongly about but the other comments basically insulting people who don't live in large metro areas are the firing offence to me.

I can't find the quotation so this is from memory but someone responded to his tweet by saying "sometimes the internet is spotty in other areas of the country like Kansas and that's why always on would suck" and Orth responded "why would anyone live there". That's pretty much a big fuck you to a large part of the country. Not a wise move to disparage millions of potential customers. I think that comment and the attitude it conveys is a bigger problem than him stating his opinion about "always on".

Re:If new Xbox requires always on internet connect

[LordNimon]

You're doing it wrong.

Kid: "Dad, can I have an x-box", answer: "no".......
Kid: "Dad, can I have an x-box", answer: smacks kids across the face
Kid: "I'm sorry, Dad"

That's how it goes in my house.

Re:Why not?

[gstoddart]

He made a valid point. Living in places without good internet access is like choosing to eat at a restaurant with bad food.

Oh, horseshit. People have all sorts of reasons for living in rural areas (cost of living, lower crime, because they want to, because that's where their job is). Are you suggesting everyone should move out of every rural area for the cities and leave the rest deserted just so they can have access to the internet?

The internet isn't the be all and end all of the world, and lots of people still want to be able to play games without the need for an internet connection.

My XBox no longer connects to the network, because once they started putting ads into both the home screen and the games they crossed the line into "absolutely not". I don't play games on-line, I have no interest in playing games on-line, and it's none of their fscking business when I play, what games I play, or for how long. And I'm certainly not giving them a platform to show me ads.

Always-on internet and DRM is meant to give them control over the consumer, as well as making sure to get some extra revenue from ads, and maybe garner information about your gaming habits.

Being required to do this is more like choosing to eat at a restaurant which serves bad food, because you're being told "eat shit, if you want to play you have no choice".

Well, there is a choice, and that's to simply not buy the next XBox. If they require always-on internet, that's the choice I'll be exercising.