Microsoft XboxOne Lead Designer Quits

The guy who orchestrated Xbox Live, Boyd Multerer, announced last week on the social network, Twitter, that he would be departing from Microsoft after working for the tech giants for the last 17 years. In his announcement, Multerer wasn’t just ready to confirm what or indeed where he will be heading to for his next venture, but the goodbye tweet did mention that he was prepared to “do something new.”

It only took a short time for Multerer to  move into a lead role at Microsoft. In fact only three years after joining Microsoft, he was hired to lead development for an online gaming service on the original Xbox console back in 2000. Multerer actually founded the development team for Xbox Live and he was even the very first person ever log on to the service before it officially launched back in in 2002.

Just over ten years ago, in 2004, Multerer then went onto become the product manager on XNA which was constructed to make the Xbox 360 more accessible to other, more independent developers. Multerer’s most recent contribution to Microsoft was serving as director of development for Xbox. It was in this position that he oversaw the technical design on Microsoft’s latest console, the Xbox One.

Boyd Multerer’s departure from Microsoft is the most recent news in a series of reports of high-ranking Xbox individuals leaving the company over the past year or so. The former Xbox boss, Don Mattrick, left the company to manage Zynga only a short time after the Xbox One was revealed in May of 2013. Also former chief product officer for Xbox, Marc Whitten, said goodbye to the company earlier in 2014.

So, what is it with senior staff leaving Microsoft? As always let us know your views.

[Image via xboxmad]

SOURCE: http://www.purexbox.com/news/2014/12/lead_designer_on_xbox_one_and_xbox_live_bids_farewell_to_microsoft