Kareem Choudhry reportedly leaves Microsoft amid broader Xbox brand shakeup
Kareem Choudhry left Microsoft on Friday, April 5, 2024. Formerly vice president of emerging technologies at Xbox, Choudhry most recently led the company’s exploration of artificial intelligence (AI) technology in games. As reported Windows Central, this marks the end of an impressive 26-year tenure with the company. In addition to leading the Emerging Technologies team, […]
Kareem Choudhry left Microsoft on Friday, April 5, 2024. Formerly vice president of emerging technologies at Xbox, Choudhry most recently led the company’s exploration of artificial intelligence (AI) technology in games.
As reported Windows Central, this marks the end of an impressive 26-year tenure with the company. In addition to leading the Emerging Technologies team, Choudhry is also well known for his previous work on many important Xbox projects. This includes the development of Xbox backwards compatibility and recent advancements in Xbox Cloud Gaming.
According to sources familiar with the matter, the rest of the Emerging Technologies team will be integrated into the broader Xbox hardware division. A memo was reportedly distributed within the company, describing a desire to accelerate AI innovation through this change.
This comes amid a major strategic shakeup at Xbox, which includes numerous management changes in addition to the hiring of new staff. As part of this, a newly created Xbox Experiences and Platforms team, led by Ashley McKissick and Kevin Gammill, would now focus on improving the Xbox user experience on PC and console.
Analysis: A digital future for Xbox?
The creation of the new Xbox Experiences and Platforms team makes sense considering the recent arrival of a handful of former Xbox exclusive titles, such as Rush to Hi-Fi And Repentanceon competing platforms including PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch.
With lackluster Xbox series Ensuring a unified Xbox experience across multiple platforms then seems like a thoughtful way to maintain a cohesive brand in the absence of a flagship console, especially with a potential Xbox portable gaming PC on the horizon.
As for Choudhry’s departure, moving the company’s AI efforts closer to Xbox’s core division could suggest a renewed focus on the technology – potentially as a way to increase the speed of software development. The exact results of this change remain to be seen, but it’s certainly worth keeping an eye on Microsoft’s gaming efforts over the coming months.
