Xbox hires game industry analyst Matthew Ball to lead strategy
Xbox hires game industry analyst Matthew Ball to lead strategy
Xbox 聘请游戏行业分析师 Matthew Ball 负责战略规划
Microsoft has recruited game industry analyst Matthew Ball as Xbox chief strategy officer. Ball publishes an annual state of video gaming report, which is a popular read across the game industry, and he’s “widely respected across gaming, media, and technology,” according to Xbox CEO Asha Sharma.
微软已聘请游戏行业分析师 Matthew Ball 担任 Xbox 首席战略官。Ball 每年都会发布一份电子游戏行业现状报告，该报告在游戏界广受关注。Xbox 首席执行官 Asha Sharma 表示，Ball 在“游戏、媒体和技术领域都备受推崇”。
Sharma announced Ball is joining Microsoft in a memo to Xbox employees this morning, seen by The Verge. She described Ball as a “longtime gamer,” who has held strategy and leadership roles at Illumination, Amazon Studios, Otter Media, and Accenture Strategy. “Matthew has been partnering with us on strategy since day 10 and will officially start this month, reporting to me,” says Sharma.
Sharma 在今天上午发给 Xbox 员工的一份备忘录中宣布了 Ball 加入微软的消息（The Verge 已查阅该备忘录）。她形容 Ball 是一位“资深玩家”，曾在照明娱乐（Illumination）、亚马逊影业（Amazon Studios）、Otter Media 和埃森哲战略（Accenture Strategy）担任战略和领导职务。Sharma 表示：“Matthew 从我上任第 10 天起就一直与我们合作制定战略，他将于本月正式入职，并直接向我汇报。”
That means Ball has been helping advise Sharma on Xbox strategy early on in her leadership, since it has been 90 days since she first took over as Xbox chief. I’ve been waiting to hear a clearer strategy on the future of Xbox beyond “a return of Xbox,” and the recruitment of Ball certainly explains why we haven’t seen that yet.
这意味着在 Sharma 接任 Xbox 负责人的 90 天里，Ball 一直在为她的 Xbox 战略提供建议。我一直在等待听到除“Xbox 回归”之外关于 Xbox 未来的更清晰战略，而聘请 Ball 无疑解释了为什么我们至今尚未看到这一战略。
Xbox also has a new chief technology officer. “Scott Van Vliet is joining as our CTO,” says Sharma. “Scott has spent more than two decades building technology and consumer platforms across cloud, commerce, gaming, and entertainment.”
Xbox 还迎来了一位新的首席技术官。Sharma 说：“Scott Van Vliet 将加入我们担任 CTO。Scott 在过去二十多年里一直致力于构建涵盖云、商业、游戏和娱乐领域的技术与消费者平台。”
Scott Van Vliet led Azure AI infrastructure at Microsoft before joining Xbox, and he has previously worked at Amazon on Fire TV, the Appstore, and more. “Scott has also been part of the XBOX community since the original Live beta in 2002,” says Sharma. “There are no changes to Hardware, Helix, or OS, which will continue reporting to me. Scott will begin ramping up now and formally start after Showcase.”
在加入 Xbox 之前，Scott Van Vliet 曾在微软负责 Azure AI 基础设施，此前他还曾在亚马逊工作，参与过 Fire TV、应用商店等项目。Sharma 表示：“Scott 自 2002 年最初的 Live 测试版以来就是 Xbox 社区的一员。硬件、Helix 或操作系统部门不会有变动，这些部门将继续向我汇报。Scott 将从现在开始逐步接手工作，并在发布会（Showcase）后正式上任。”
Sharma is also promoting Chris Schnakenberg to corporate vice president of partnerships and business development as part of today’s Xbox leadership changes. These are the second major Xbox leadership changes in a matter of weeks. Earlier this month Sharma adding some new faces to Xbox who used to work alongside her in Microsoft’s CoreAI division. It sounds like these leadership changes won’t be the last, either.
作为今天 Xbox 领导层变动的一部分，Sharma 还将 Chris Schnakenberg 提拔为负责合作伙伴关系和业务发展的公司副总裁。这是几周内 Xbox 发生的第二次重大领导层变动。本月早些时候，Sharma 为 Xbox 引入了一些曾在微软 CoreAI 部门与她共事过的新面孔。听起来，这些领导层的变动似乎还不会是最后一次。
“These changes are about strengthening our foundation by creating more clarity and improving execution,” says Sharma. “As we head toward Showcase and beyond, we’ll continue making the changes needed to position XBOX for the future.”
Sharma 表示：“这些变动旨在通过创造更高的透明度和提升执行力来巩固我们的基础。随着我们迈向发布会及未来，我们将继续进行必要的变革，为 Xbox 的未来做好定位。”