Zune headquarters mini-tour
By Ryan Block 
posted May 9th 2008 12:24PM
posted May 9th 2008 12:24PM
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Sweet... a Shogun Warrior Godzilla.
Toys for boys have steadily gone downhill since the days of Shogun Warriors and G1 Transformers.
Wow, I'm so jealous. I wish my office was that cool.
It looks cool but at the same time, way too retro...
You want to work in a place where they can't afford ceilings and you have to use your projectors on bare walls with not enough room so the ventilation ducts block one third of your screen? OK, ya right. Looks like 70's retro hamster maze hell to me.
Good job reading the article, Blackstar. You know, about that part that mentioned the office is under construction. Nope, wouldn't have interfered with understanding the photos at all.
@ staticmesh My reading comprehension is fine. The remark was a double stab directed at both their lack of progress and Matthew's apparent sincere desire to work in a construction site because he thinks it's 'cool'.
Don't worry though. I'm sure your sense of humor will arrive with your Zune order. Although, some assembly may be required.
Reminds me of IBM where the whole environment was designed by control freaks. The only thing missing is the 'THINK' sign and Room 101. Maybe Steve Balmer has taken up interior design?
The clouds-and-rainbow motif with the bike in there and people together is enough to make me puke.
It's probably just me...
That office has every cliched item and look so that people will think "WOW! This place is COOL. Except that there's so much distraction and visual overload that nobody actually gets any work done. And it shows.
That office so calls for a football to be passed around. Environments that make people relaxed are the most productive. Google, Apple, Miscrosoft Zune, and a lot of gamming companies have proven that already. Now if only the Microsoft OS buildings were like that.
I know I'm going to sound like an Apple hater, but from what I've read Apple doesn't seem like a very laid back place to work. I can't remember the name of the book I read for a management class, but it specifically said that Apple is a very tense place to work, that people are in danger of being fired at basically any time, and despite this seeming to be against common thought, it works very well for them. Mostly because Steve Jobs is so charismatic and everyone loves him there.
"Mostly because Steve Jobs is so charismatic and everyone loves him there."
I heard that he now has his employees calling him "Dear Leader". Also, they all have to learn his autobiography by heart.
Pretty much the soul-crushing cubicle farm I expected.
There's not thing like bright, shiny ductwork to say "this space never intended for human habitation."
Does EVERY 'modern' office design look like that? The past two places I have worked had very similar motifs.
Call it what you like...A cube farm is still a cube farm...So much for the 'social' philosophy of the Zune...or did they give up the 'welcome to the social' marketing?
I do like the fact that there seems to be a lot of 'bump into' space and places where people can go to get out of cubicle hell for a while.
the vast majority of microsoft employees work in private offices rather than cubicles. microsoft just happens to have a severe space crunch right now, but there is a lot of building going on to rectify this.
Anyone else find it ironic that the office is just a run of the mill box with some empty meeting spaces?
Welcome to the social.
Anyone else find it ironic you can't read?
"Soon enough a few hundred Zune employees will be packing up and moving to a new building that's currently under construction, though."
Well, Chris, there's reading and then there's comprehension.
The future building has nothing to do with the irony of the situation.
My comment was drawing a parallel between the capabilities of a generic mp3 player with tacked on and unused social features and a generic office space with unused meeting spaces (or in this comparison, 'social features').
Well done on your razor-sharp, 'yer mom'-caliber comment. Ten out of ten!
I take it you don't work in an office do you Mr. Handsome? Anyway, take your generic hatred out on something that is a generic mp3 player.
Oh and thanks engadget, this is cool. Just wanting a Blue Zune 80.
Just because it is their slogan does not mean it has to be relevant to their work space. It just has to be relevant to their product. I enjoy their product. If you don't like it, just say you don't like it. You don't have to be a bitch and ruin it for everyone else.
@ Ian
Tacked on and unused social features? So being able to share content is not useful? How about multi-player games? Maybe you don't have friends, but I guess I should expect that from someone who calls himself "handsome".
The flooring and furniture are super 70s retro-esque.
Ok ladies and gentlemen...
That is all for this tour.
Next stop is: Ipod-headquarters-mini tour.
yup, and the first thing I imagine is a whole bunch of chinese guys..... with one hand they are assembling your future-to-be ipod touch and on the other hand they are sewing the latest nike AF1 sneakers.
Ah, the designers were housed in a portable, now it all makes sense.
LOL MIKE U R SO FUNNY WIT UR COMMENT THAT DUN RELATE TO THE POST AND HOW AWESOM U R BEING FIRST KAN WE BFRIENDS? OMG I WISH I WERE SO AWESOME AS U.
KTHANKX!!!!11!1!
>"Ever wonder where Zunes are designed?"
No, and I never really wondered where Yugos were designed either.
Best. Comment. Ever.
They bitch because Engadget is too "Apple." Engadget tries to show some love to Microsoft, and they bitch some more...
That place looks awesome... I soo want to work for MS... Still only 16 though, I've got to wait 'til after college to go to Redmond..
I'd petition for Engadget to give us a tour of Apple's iPod facilities, but if you've seen the back of a "head shop" in Berkeley then you get the idea.
OMGWTFBBQ111!!!!!!!!!11111!!! YES!
Why the hell did they remove my comment? ENGADGET SUCKS!
knowing the other MS buildings im guessing the new location will be pretty wicked
The new campus (posted links below to some info on it) will be just across the freeway from main campus. It used to be the headquarters for Eddie Bauer. The place where Zune is now, is a campus that used to house the Redmond site for Safeco Insurance (that company was just recently sold to Liberty Mutual).
The cubes are due to the building, which was purchased from an insurance company who use to reside on the campus where this buildinfg is located, it wasn't designed for permanent use. The place they are moving is under construction and due to be occupyable near the end of summer to fall timeframe. You can see it being built (and check pictures from each day and see a timelapse) here:
http://oxblue.com/pro/open/?webPath=microsoft/westcampus
More info on the new Xbox/Zune campus:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/338776_msftcampus08.html
Quote from above article -
"The company is also building one of the Western Hemisphere's largest underground parking garages -- with room for about 5,000 vehicles, on four stories. It will be beneath a central playfield and commons buildings on the West Campus."
All the haters do not want info like that!!! They want to assume this is exactly the place where MS wants to develop the Zune. They don't need to hear that it's a temp building until another building is ready for the Zune peeps....come on!!!! Q.
"Permit applications for the West Campus development reveal details that include a bar for employees amid the planned complex of four office buildings."
I've read enough. Submitted my resume.
what are all those goodies in pic #8, i want to connect my zune to sequencer too!
And over hear is our life-sized doll of Steve Jobbs. Notice the sharp Zune needles that we have radomly jabbed into the doll's body. Also notice the Ipod scanning devices at all entrances. On a funny note anyone caught with an Ipod in the office with out prior consent is brutally stoned with or excess supply of first generation Zunes. Okay who is ready for lunch.
Pic 18: Where is the Xbox 360, you figure if you are going to have a lounge area you should have something to do...
Yeah I was also expecting a Zune Home A/V pack..
Apple bias!
Is it just me or does the guy in picture 4 look like Steve Jobs?
They have CDJ's and turntables, I bet that no one there even knows how to work them. You can tell they never get used, because the covers are on the turntables. There is nothing worse than people trying to be cool!
It doesn't really matter. When Ballmer get's the axe soon, the Zune will be tanked.
the question shouldn't be 'where' as much as 'why'?
Wait, did you say "a few hundred Zune employees"? How can it take that many employees? Toshiba did all the nitty gritty hardware, is Microsoft so inefficient that is takes hundreds of employees to create software for a media player?
Good job at looking like an idiot. How many does it take to develop a product, market it and sell it? Please tell us.
Toshiba did design the first Zune, but the new devices shipped last year were designed in-house, from what I've read.
They have sold 2 million Zunes in two years. In that same time Apple sold 76 million Ipods. See here:http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/05/09/zune-sales-still-in-the-toilet/
Office decor aside, I love my Zune. 'Nuff said.
I dig the retro look...hehe...
photo number 18 looks to have a powerbook or macbook pro on the table.
http://www.engadget.com/photos/zune-hq-mini-tour/796556/
So your saying because you work at Microsoft you can't use Apple? Why don't people understand that not everyone is a fan-boy. IT IS POSSIBLE TO USE BOTH PRODUCTS. You don't have to shove all your money into one corporation.
Is this where they're working on the NBC Copyright Cop filtering?
That never happened. It was just a rumor. Check out the details at the zuneboards website.
Looks like someone or something puked while on LSD!!!11ONEone11
Hahahaha Zune headquarters... Wow.
Wow. I seriously feel like inspiration has been sucked out of me. At first, it looks new and different, but when you look closer it's totally a facade. No one plays mix-mastah at the zune mix table, and the lame posters would get old after like three days.
I agree. This has all the signs of "trying" to be cool, but when you look closer, you see the same old corporate crap. It very representative of the product that is coming out of it. The packaged cubicles they specified scream mediocre. In MS's defense, this is a temporary workspace from what I've read. I hope the current Zune is also as temporary.
"Ever wonder where Zunes are designed?" No, I already know where - Cupertino.
I've never worked for Microsoft, but I get the distinct impression that aside from Windows and Office, the company is an anarchic mess of renegade, half-hearted pet projects with no unifying strategy other than "own every market on the planet."
You sir have given me the perfect combination of words to describe mine own station of employment
I literally thought the zune was farting rainbows and sprinkles in the first pic...
All you youngin's, don't let the shiny colors and hip toys confuse you... I've worked in environments like this in the past (circa 1st dot.com erra), and it was still depressing as hell to work in this little tiny cube, sometimes sharing with others. You might be able to cover shit with frosting and jelly beans, but it's still shit.
http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/2008/05/zune-hq-mini-tour-43.jpg
Ahh. I was always looking for an explanation to the lack of removable batteries and Flash media in modern 'walkmans'...and lack of 2-way native Mass-Storage drag-n-drop and FLAC support. http://flac.sourceforge.net
Too many of these.
That's some groooovy furniture in the Zune Lounge. Like, Brady Bunch groovy.
What about a picture gallery of the zune's counterpart in Cupertino?
Ahh, so that is where all the Zunes Microsoft has claimed to sell. They are hanging on the wall with their insides out. Where is the picture of the iPod stash. ;-)
So that's where that giant dump I took ended up. It mutated, rose from the sewers and named itself Seth A.
They sure are trying hard to make it feel like a cool place to work. The branding all over everything, awful interior design, and the corporate mottos plastered around still give it away, though. Seriously, who thinks framing the word "authenticity" on the wall is actually going to accomplish anything? Maybe I should scratch the word "money" into my night stand and check it in the morning.
This is basically an office full of marketing people, the only engineering going on there is social. Don't buy into it.
Yeah they should post apple's headquarter pics.
Im afraid i'll be a white room with picture frames of "El Jobso" and his biography together with all the products designed at apple.
Or it could be a whole bunch of chinese guys..... with one hand they are assembling the latest ipod touch and on the other hand at the same time they are sewing the latest nike sneakers.
What-ever. I still think my Zune rocks.
That is a ridiculous amount of overhead.
There is a lot of Pro Apple comments mad on anything microsoft. To a point where it's a little annoying to always have some comparison. Fact is the Zune is not a horrible product, the ipod is just too much a Giant for it to go against right now.
Where's Zune Guy's tattoo parlor??
Great pics guys. Really appreciate it. Looks like they got a common theme and look that isn't very Microsoftie.