Cast your minds back a little under a year ago, and you may recall Microsoft having a little trouble with Xbox Live. Namely, it wasn't working. Which was strange, and strange for two reasons. Firstly, it's normally always working. And secondly, it didn't just stop working, it stopped working for weeks. Think it was down for weeks because Microsoft just didn't care? Well, we can tell you, somebody cared. Two people, in fact. One of them was Robbie Bach. And the other? Steve Ballmer. Xbox Live's Jerry Johnson, speaking with Eurogamer, has revealed that, as the hours of downtime turned into days and then weeks, the top brass at Microsoft got a little shirty.
I can tell you that when Robbie Bach is on the phone on Christmas Day calling people asking what the hell is going on, and that's coming down from Steve Ballmer... that's the kind of attention it got last holiday. Many things have changed since then, and we realised the kind of growth trajectory we were on and had to prepare for it.
No shit you're prepared. One Steve Ballmer shouting episode is enough, I don't think a human can withstand two. NXE manager: "We can do it again" [Eurogamer]