Business Insider article.
So we've known MS is looking to have remote workers even after the pandemic is over and everyone here knows outside of Nadella and Amy Hood, there isn't anyone on earth more reliable when it comes to MS info than Bill himself (yeah he is only an advisor on board meetings as he focus on his foundation and charity stuff a lot more these days) still he knows what MS is planning for the future and I'd even go as far as saying he knows better than 99.99% of the population what the other companies are planning to do as well, especially tech companies.
In a way I think he is hopeful this is the future too, for MS it would be good to expand Azure, Linkedin and MS teams even further than the absurd levels of growth they've seen recently and maybe also Skype (if there is any hope for it to be salvaged at this point), they want to benefit from gaming too I am sure if this is the new norm and people are playing more, as we've seen already (though that will possibly change once all restrictions are lifted). Other companies that I think could benefit if Bill's predictions come true in my opinion (some more than others obviously) would be: Facebook, Google, Apple, Amazon, Oracle, AT&T, Netflix, IBM, NVIDIA, Adobe, Twitter, AMD, Akamai, Intel, Zoom (before they're bought out, though Eric Yuan doesn't want to sell), Discord (before they're bought out), Telegram (before they're bought out), ISPs such as Verizon, Comcast and some chinese companies too like Tencent and Alibaba, among many others.
Now first what does this mean for gaming? With MS, what will happen with all their employees who work in offices all over the world? They've expanded into new offices with some of their teams recently, will that stop now? What will happen with the other publishers such as Sony, Nintendo, EA, Activision Blizzard, Take 2, Ubisoft and most of the other devs? Will they follow MS into this work from home future too (at least a hybrid approach as they're looking to do, giving people the option to work from home if they want)? Some devs already did remote work before the covid hit anyways. What does this mean for gaming in the future? Will it be better overall? Will games take longer? Is it absolutely necessary for some games to be made in physical offices otherwise they wouldn't be possible any other way (this I sort of doubt since working from home has been the standard, though we've seen delays across all publishers and devs)?
Now for businesses in general outside of gaming, how will this change things? For one there are jobs that you absolutely can't work from home even if you want to, so those will stay the same either way. Now for those who can work from home, do we expect this trend to continue upwards (either slowly or at a faster pace) untill all work that can be done from home is done from home?
Some speculation (for both gaming and other tech businesses): one benefit is that location would no longer be an issue for companies looking for talent that are located outside of gaming and tech hubs, as employees would only need reliable internet connections to work (anywhere in the world where that is possible). Data caps could be gone in more places where it is still a thing and with 5G networks we could be looking at a better digital future overall with the cloud and streaming future that seems to be ineveitable (this could speed things up). For a longshot (though I doubt this), real estate prices could go down in places like the Bay Area and Sillicon Valley, southern California and the Seattle metropolitan area, cheaper rent for people who are not in tech and struggle to live in those places, as tech companies wouldn't need to have their workers close to their headquarters anymore, and some of those workers might find it more appealing to live elsewhere, but this also could in a way be bad for the local economy in those places (though they already have strong economies anyway for the most part) because you would be losing out on a lot of people's spending in those areas (because they no longer absolutely have to live there anymore, this might manisfet more with future generations who aren't used living in those places already), so it could affect other businesses outside of gaming/tech as a side effect (mid term/long term), though I am sure it wouldn't be the end of the world even if that happened (which I'm really not sure it would).
What do you guys think of all this? Gaming and business alike.
- Bill Gates is predicting that business travel and office work won't return to pre-pandemic levels in the future.
- "My prediction would be that over 50% of business travel and over 30% of days in the office will go away," Gates said at The New York Times DealBook conference on Tuesday.
- In-person business meetings won't be the "gold standard" anymore, Gates said, predicting that most companies will have a "very high threshold" for doing those types of business trips.
- Many major tech companies, particularly in the tech realm, are reconsidering the future of work. Some, like Twitter and Slack, have said employees may work remotely forever. Others, like Microsoft, after planning to implement hybrid models of work.
So we've known MS is looking to have remote workers even after the pandemic is over and everyone here knows outside of Nadella and Amy Hood, there isn't anyone on earth more reliable when it comes to MS info than Bill himself (yeah he is only an advisor on board meetings as he focus on his foundation and charity stuff a lot more these days) still he knows what MS is planning for the future and I'd even go as far as saying he knows better than 99.99% of the population what the other companies are planning to do as well, especially tech companies.
In a way I think he is hopeful this is the future too, for MS it would be good to expand Azure, Linkedin and MS teams even further than the absurd levels of growth they've seen recently and maybe also Skype (if there is any hope for it to be salvaged at this point), they want to benefit from gaming too I am sure if this is the new norm and people are playing more, as we've seen already (though that will possibly change once all restrictions are lifted). Other companies that I think could benefit if Bill's predictions come true in my opinion (some more than others obviously) would be: Facebook, Google, Apple, Amazon, Oracle, AT&T, Netflix, IBM, NVIDIA, Adobe, Twitter, AMD, Akamai, Intel, Zoom (before they're bought out, though Eric Yuan doesn't want to sell), Discord (before they're bought out), Telegram (before they're bought out), ISPs such as Verizon, Comcast and some chinese companies too like Tencent and Alibaba, among many others.
Now first what does this mean for gaming? With MS, what will happen with all their employees who work in offices all over the world? They've expanded into new offices with some of their teams recently, will that stop now? What will happen with the other publishers such as Sony, Nintendo, EA, Activision Blizzard, Take 2, Ubisoft and most of the other devs? Will they follow MS into this work from home future too (at least a hybrid approach as they're looking to do, giving people the option to work from home if they want)? Some devs already did remote work before the covid hit anyways. What does this mean for gaming in the future? Will it be better overall? Will games take longer? Is it absolutely necessary for some games to be made in physical offices otherwise they wouldn't be possible any other way (this I sort of doubt since working from home has been the standard, though we've seen delays across all publishers and devs)?
Now for businesses in general outside of gaming, how will this change things? For one there are jobs that you absolutely can't work from home even if you want to, so those will stay the same either way. Now for those who can work from home, do we expect this trend to continue upwards (either slowly or at a faster pace) untill all work that can be done from home is done from home?
Some speculation (for both gaming and other tech businesses): one benefit is that location would no longer be an issue for companies looking for talent that are located outside of gaming and tech hubs, as employees would only need reliable internet connections to work (anywhere in the world where that is possible). Data caps could be gone in more places where it is still a thing and with 5G networks we could be looking at a better digital future overall with the cloud and streaming future that seems to be ineveitable (this could speed things up). For a longshot (though I doubt this), real estate prices could go down in places like the Bay Area and Sillicon Valley, southern California and the Seattle metropolitan area, cheaper rent for people who are not in tech and struggle to live in those places, as tech companies wouldn't need to have their workers close to their headquarters anymore, and some of those workers might find it more appealing to live elsewhere, but this also could in a way be bad for the local economy in those places (though they already have strong economies anyway for the most part) because you would be losing out on a lot of people's spending in those areas (because they no longer absolutely have to live there anymore, this might manisfet more with future generations who aren't used living in those places already), so it could affect other businesses outside of gaming/tech as a side effect (mid term/long term), though I am sure it wouldn't be the end of the world even if that happened (which I'm really not sure it would).
What do you guys think of all this? Gaming and business alike.