You may not be familiar with the name Chris Novak, but you’ve experienced the fruits of his work if you have used Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Live or Xbox Cloud Gaming. As head of Xbox research and design, Novak was responsible for directing user experience for a range of Xbox related products and features from cloud gaming to achievements. Here’s his LinkedIn post announcing the resignation:
Novak had held the role for over 5 years. Before that he held the positions of Xbox design director and Xbox design architect. Upon stepping into the head of research and design role, Novak had a major hand in creating the Xbox Play Anywhere feature – a cross-buy program which allows users to purchase and play certain games between Xbox One and Windows 10 PC – as well as the Touch Adaptation Kit for Xbox Cloud Gaming. Novak has listed these as some of his proudest accomplishments in his 20 years with Xbox.
Novak has said that he wants to take time off to learn new things, rather than going to another company, at least for the time being.
