Chris Novak announced his departure after 20 years at Xbox. He didn't specify his future plans just saying that he wants to take a break from work for the time being.
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The head of Xbox research and design, Chris Novak, is leaving the company after nearly 20 years. Novak announced his departure on Tuesday via LinkedIn. In his most recent role, Novak was responsible for user experience across consoles, PC, Game Pass, xCloud, and other company services like PlayFab and Game Stack.
"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," he wrote. "I adore listening to gamers and envisioning that next moment of unexpected delight. Gaming is amazing. Xbox will always be with me."
Novak joined Xbox in 2002 as design director, shortly after the launch of the original Xbox console, and worked on such projects as RalliSport Challenge 2, Forza Motorsport, Crackdown, and the Gotham Racing series. After 6 years in this role, he later served as a design architect where he was responsible for the development of the Hololens and Xbox One technology. In 2016, Novak took over the role of head of Xbox research and design.
In an interview with Polygon, Novak said that he plans to take a break from work for the time being and learn new things. He did not specify his future plans. "I’m just about to be 20 years with Xbox," said Novak. "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."
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