Chris Novak has been with since 2002 but has decided to depart and won’t be immediately joining a new company.
As of April 19, the head of research and design at Xbox, Chris Novak, is no longer a part of Microsoft. This marks the end of an almost 20-year career with the company, with Novak deciding to take some time to himself and try new things.
Since 2016, Novak worked on improving the user experience across Microsoft’s gaming platforms, including the Xbox consoles, Windows on PC, Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Live, and the xCloud streaming platform.
‘I started at Xbox in November of 2002, so after nearly 20 years I know this news can either come as a surprise, or as expected. It’s a mix of both!’ says Novak.
He makes it clear that there’s no bad blood between him and Microsoft, adding ‘I have loved my time with Xbox. Building end-to-end experiences for gamers is a privilege. There are very few things one gets to work on in life which evoke such passion in people around the world. I adore listening to gamers and envisioning that next moment of unexpected delight. Gaming is amazing. Xbox will always be with me.
‘I will always root for Xbox,’ he continues. ‘For user-centred process, and most importantly for the voices of countless gamers around the world looking for ways to connect to one another and the games they love. They are who we really work for!’
His announcement can be found on his, where he explains that he won’t be going straight into working at another company. Instead, he intends on taking a period of rest, something he promised himself at least three years ago.
Novak provided a bit more detail in an interview with , saying ‘I’m just about to be 20 years with Xbox. For me, some of the things that are coming up for Xbox, which are tremendously exciting, would be committing to years’ worth of work there.
‘It would be amazing. But do I want to commit to that? Or do I want to acknowledge that I’m happy with what we’ve shipped? Do I actually need to go out on my own and continue my own learning journey, trying some other things. If I don’t do that now, when do I do that?’
Novak originally worked at EA as a game designer from 1995 to 2000, contributing to racing games like PGA Tour 96 and Knockout Kings 2000.
He later joined Microsoft in 2002 as a design director, where he mostly worked on racers like the Project Gotham Racing series, although he was also involved in the first Crackdown.
After seven years, he became a design architect in 2009, managing the design team at Xbox Global Publishing and contributing to first party games like and . He was also part of the initial design team for Microsoft’s HoloLens technology.
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