"The reality is that every single game we shipped took twice as long as we said it was going to take, and cost twice as much to make," said Paul Bettner while speaking at GDC.
"Microsoft is a public company, they answer to their shareholders, and we were simply too expensive."
He explained that "everyone was a workaholic", often working late and sleeping at the office in an attempt to achieve the same level of success it had with its Age of Empires series.
"I watched this happen and I did almost nothing to stop it. As an employee, and later as a manager, I didn't take a stand. I just kept hoping for that next high," Bettner added.
"This is a horrible vicious cycle. We burn out all our best people. We destroy these precious artists, we wreck their families and we sacrifice their youth. So they leave, and they take all their experience with them."
Via Eurogamer.