Chris Novak, Xbox’s head of research and design, is leaving after nearly 20 years

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Chris Novak, the head of research and design at Microsoft, is leaving the company. He has been with the company for more than five years and has led the user experience for things like Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Cloud gaming, and Xbox Live. He held the roles of design architect and design director at Microsoft.

Novak said in a post that he loved his time with the console. There are only a few things that evoke such passion in people around the world. I love listening to gaming and imagining the next moment of joy. It is amazing. It will always be with me.

I recommend you read the full interview with Novak, which was published Tuesday, because he shared more about his career at Microsoft. I treasure that learning process.

Novak has talked to The Verge about the challenges of making console interface. The change could be a blow to Microsoft, but I think he leaves the game in a good place. Microsoft has some work to do to catch up to Sony, but products like the ones Novak worked on put the company in a strong position to compete.