Xbox Live founder leaving Microsoft

Xbox Live founder leaves Microsoft

The father of Xbox Live, Boyd Multerer, has quit Microsoft.

In a series of posts on Twitter, Multerer - who also designed the Xbox One - said that he was moving on to greener pastures after close to two decades with the Redmond giant. While he wasn’t ready to share his next project, he does seem rather excited about it. Whether it’s going to be videogame-related is anyone’s guess, though with such a strong history in the games industry it certainly wouldn’t be surprising. Perhaps he’s moving to Sony?

Multerer joined Microsoft originally back in 1997, before being tasked with overseeing and implementing Xbox Live on the first Xbox. He was responsible for hiring the development team, promoting the service and ensuring its smooth rollout across the platform, as well as trying to ensure that it was as secure and safe from cheaters as possible. His work paid off, as the Xbox became the first console to bring online console gaming to the masses, while allowing gamers to enjoy a truly digital era which is arguably responsible for the later success of PlayStation Network and, to an extent, Nintendo’s online service. Sure, the Dreamcast also featured online gaming back in the day, and Sony had already performed early experiments with its Network Adaptor for PlayStation 2; but it wasn’t until Xbox Live came along that features such as online services, digital storefronts and things like friends lists and party chat came to be expected as standard features for home game systems. Multerer was also instrumental in the final design of Microsoft’s latest system, helping to finalise its system architecture.

His departure marks just the latest in a long string of of notable names leaving the company over the last 18 months, a list populated with figures such as Don Mattrick moving on to Zynga, and Xbox Entertainment chiefs Nancy Tellem and Jordan Levin departing following the closure of their division earlier this year.

Dale Morgan

Dale Morgan

Founder, Editor in Chief
When Dale isn't crying over his keyboard about his never-ending workload, he's playing games - lots of them. Dale has a particular love for RPGs, Roguelikes and Metroidvanias.
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