Otto Berkes, the last of the four Xbox founders at Microsoft, is set to leave the firm after 18 years of service.
The Seattle Times reports that Berkes tendered his resignation yesterday. Along with Ted Hase, Seamus Blackley and Kevin Bachus, who left in 2006, 2002 and 2001 respectively, Berkes was part of the group that first persuaded Microsoft to enter the console market with the suggestion of a "DirectX box", which would eventually become the Xbox, released in 2001.
Airtight Games' Ed Fries was heading up Microsoft's games publishing business when he was approached by the gang of four in 1998. Berkes and his colleagues dismantled several Dell laptops and built a prototype of what would become the firm's first console.
"He was one of the crazy guys who came in my office one day with this idea of doing this thing, making this Direct X box," Fries said. "They talked me into joining up with them and helping to make it happen. It wouldn't have happened without him." Thirteen years later, the Xbox business is worth almost $10 billion a year.
"It's a good time for me to make a transition to a different set of challenges and something new and fresh," said Berkes, who declined to reveal where he will be heading next. In a tweet, he said: "Leaving Microsoft after 18 years isn't easy but I'm very excited about what's next."
After his work on Xbox was completed, Berkes headed up development of the Ultra Mobile PC, with Bill Gates showing a prototype of a tablet-like device in 2005, long before the iPad made the tablet a viable proposition for hardware manufacturers. However, costs at the time were deemed prohibitive, and Microsoft lost interest in the project.
Source: Seattle Times