The former Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer, has officially resigned from the company’s board of directors “effective immediately”. Ballmer gives a number of reasons as to why he has went through with his resignation, saying that the chief contributing factors are a “combination of the Clippers, civic contribution, teaching and study.”

The company’s current CEO, Satya Nadella, took time to thank Mr Ballmer for his exemplary guidance and contributions by saying that he’s looking forward to partnering up with Ballmer as a shareholder. Ballmer currently holds more shares in Microsoft than anyone other than the index funds.

Ballmer says, “Given my confidence and the multitude of new commitments I am taking on now, I think it would be impractical for me to continue to serve on the board, and it is best for me to move off.”

Having spent an enormous amount of time with the company, know that it’s not hyperbole when he says “I bleed Microsoft — have for 34 years and I always will,”.

Naturally, we wish the best for Steve Ballmer for his future endeavours.

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Microsoft has revealed that Steve Ballmer will now take over the Xbox business after Don’s recent departure from Microsoft. Don Mattrick is appointed as the new CEO for Zynga and the contract will come in-effect on July 8th 2013. Meanwhile, Microsoft doesn’t have someone to replace Don Mattrick, so the firm has decided to put Steve Ballmer in-charge. It is currently unknown if Steve Ballmer is a temporary replacement for Don Mattrick or if Microsoft is actually looking for someone else at this moment.

Here is the full statement from Steve Ballmer’s email regarding Don Mattrick joining up with Zynga – Thanks to CVG for the source.

“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.”

To some people this may be a surprising piece of news, especially for me personally. I did not expect Steve Ballmer to overtake Xbox Business. I am not to pleased with his performances and his speeches during previous Microsoft conferences.Is this good for the Xbox One, and will it affect the launch of Microsoft’s new hardware in any sort of positive or negative way? I guess we’re going have to wait to find out.

Sound off in the comments below and tell us what you think about this.

Stay tuned to GamingBolt as this story develops.

Sony have just released a PR which confirms that Kazuo Hirai, the dynamic force behind Playstation is now the President and CEO of Sony. Earlier Nikkei reported that this was going to happen, but with Stringer as CEO. However, Hirai is the CEO as well.

He will be effectively the new President and CEO on April 1st 2012, when Sony’s new Fiscal Year begins.

“Three years ago, I started to work with the Board on succession plans, and in February, 2009 we named a new generation of leaders to be my management team. Among them was Kaz Hirai, who had distinguished himself through his work in the PlayStation and networked entertainment businesses,” current chief Howard Stringer added.

“Kaz is a globally focused executive for whom technology and the cloud are familiar territory, content is highly valued, and digital transformation is second nature. I believe his tough-mindedness and leadership skills will be of great benefit to the company and its customers in the months and years ahead.

“I look forward to helping Kaz in every way I can so that succession leads inevitably to success. It was my honor to recommend him to the Board for the positions of President and CEO, because he is ready to lead, and the time to make this change is now.”

Hirai chimed in and briefly described his plans for the future.

“As challenging as times are for Sony now, were it not for the strong leadership of Sir Howard Stringer these past seven years, we would have been in a much more difficult position. I am grateful to Sir Howard and to the Board for their confidence in me, and I look forward to working with everyone at Sony more closely than ever before to build a strong future for our customers, shareholders, partners and employees.

“The path we must take is clear: to drive the growth of our core electronics businesses – primarily digital imaging, smart mobile and game; to turn around the television business; and to accelerate the innovation that enables us to create new business domains.

“The foundations are now firmly in place for the new management team and me to fully leverage Sony’s diverse electronics product portfolio, in conjunction with our rich entertainment assets and growing array of networked services, to engage with our customers around the world in new and exciting ways.”

And the chairman of the board Yotaro Kobayashi commented on the appointment as well.

“The Board is grateful to Sir Howard Stringer for all he has done to help Sony travel such a long and vital way down the road from an analogue to a digital company. He has clearly recognized the importance of connecting our tremendous products with networks and content so that our devices come fully alive in the hands of consumers.

“We agree with Sir Howard that Kazuo Hirai is the right man at the right time to lead Sony. He has a unique capacity to inspire people, to build teams, to make the tough decisions, and to think with clarity and foresight about the challenges we face and how to surmount them.

“We are also pleased that Sir Howard has accepted our request to remain with Sony after June as Chairman of the Board of Directors. His leadership and experience will be of immeasurable assistance to us all.”

Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

Flying Wild Hog, the developer behind Hard Reset had some choice words to say about the current mainstream games like Call of Duty. “All those modern shooters are about terrorists – after playing all those Call Of Duty games, I sometimes feel like I will open my fridge and a terrorist will pop-out to shoot me. Boring!” said CEO, Michal Szustak.

“We don’t want to create mainstream games, because those are boring. We made a game for all those who are tired with all the generic anti-terrorist shooters.”

“I believe many players around world miss those old days and old games,” Szustak said.

“I also think there is too much of these ‘on-rails’ shooters on the market, so sooner or later players will grow tired and will crave something different.”

“Our entire team worked for two years to prepare the best possible single player experience. We could split our team and we could try adding multiplayer, but that would certainly affect the quality of our single player,” he explained.

“Also, it’s rather unlikely that we would create a multiplayer mode that could successfully compete with games focused on multiplayer only. So what’s the point? We believe that by concentrating on a single goal – an old-school single-player experience we are sure we can deliver for the gamers’ satisfaction – is more important.”

Those are a lot of words. Hard Reset is a PC exclusive and releases this year. Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

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