A former Microsoft manager has claimed that Bill Gates’ way of praising employees ‘was to brutally insult them’.
Scot Bayless, an ex-studio manager overseeing the team for the production of Flight Simulator 2000, said that Gates swore at staff when responding in disbelief to the level of detail in the game.
After Flight Simulator 2000 reached a technical milestone by successfully mapping the entire planet in one-kilometre blocks, Bayless, says an early demo left the Microsoft founder, 67, stunned.
Bayless recalls that after explaining to Gates that the software included every airport on the planet, Gates responded by saying, ‘You’re full of s***. That’s the stupidest f****** thing I’ve ever heard’, per IEEE Spectrum.
He added: ‘This was Gates’s highest form of praise. In the lore of Microsoft, if Bill says that to you, you’re made.’
Indeed, the level of detail in Flight Simulator made it a hit with gamers, as it went to top best-selling charts.
The team in charge of the game has since been renamed Aces Game Studio, and has created spin-offs for Microsoft such as Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator and MicrosoftSpace Simulator.
There was even talk of a universal platform for general-purpose, world-scale simulation, which eventually spun into Microsoft’s Enterprise Simulation Platform.
ESP lasted only a few years but was licensed by Lockheed Martin for its Prepar3D simulation platform.
The latest flight simulator game by the company, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, is scheduled for release next year and will be available on Windows and Xbox Series X/S.
Bayless’ claims come as Gates has put his bets on Bud Light’s comeback after the tech mogul bought 1.7million worth of shares from the disgraced brand’s parent company.
Gates acquired the Bud Light shares via his Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust during the second quarter of this year.
The shares hold a market value of approximately $95 million, reports TipRanks.
His investment comes as Anheuser-Busch Companies are still reeling from the effects of their partnership with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney on April 1 after videos and images posted by her caused nationwide boycotts of Bud Light across the US.
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