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Ed Fries Leaves Microsoft's Game Unit
jnguy writes "According to Reuters, Ed Fries, Microsoft's game studio head, has resigned. The last major person to leave Microsoft in this fashion was Seamus Blackley. I wonder if this has any other meaning - I've seen Fries at many of Microsoft's parties and launch events, and consider him one of the biggest figures in Xbox history." CNN Money has further information on Fries' departure, noting that "he plans to remain in the gaming industry", and commenting that he was "actively involved in the development and launch of the Xbox gaming system and oversaw the acquisition of several major game developers, including Bungie Software... and Rare." They also have comments from Fries himself, as he muses on his future: "I'm looking for a situation where I have a lot of freedom around the development of our products and the way those products come to market. I've had some of that to date, but not as much as I would like."
I've heard much of the Donkey Kong Country team had left before MS's acquistion.
I hadn't heard about that, but most of the Goldeneye/Perfect Dark team left a few years ago and formed Free Radical, who made the TimeSplitters games.
Supposedly a decent number of people left when the company was sold to MS. There's also Zoonami, which consists of a lot of ex-Rare people. I'm not sure when those people left Rare.
Sorry but you'd be an idiot if you didn't see this coming.
Game programmers require that gaming culture. That is not to say the Microsoft development group didn't have any... but let's face it. MS is a corporate environment where one wall is developing spreadsheet software and another is programming games.
Look at the company in Japan making Gran Turismo 4. There was some insane article on the programmer's lifestyle in game informer magazines. Live, breathe, drive and program in style 24x7.
::psst::
I've worked with him; it's pronounced "freeze".