Xbox research and development lead Chris Novak leaving Microsoft

If you’ve subscribed to Game Pass or obsessed over Xbox achievements, you’re familiar with Chris Novak’s work.

After almost 20 years in the role, Novak has been named head of Xbox research & design. Novak was responsible for user experience design and research over the past five years. He also previously served as Xbox design chief and Xbox architect. Across these roles, Novak was responsible for user experience in many of the company’s biggest projects, including Xbox Game Pass, along with cloud gaming and Xbox Live.

“Microsoft has been where I’ve gotten to learn in the crucible of gaming, from the world’s best across the industry,” Novak told Polygon. “I’ve got to see it in its best times and its worst times. And that learning process, I tremendously treasure.”

Chris Novak

Novak took over Microsoft’s Xbox research and design at a turning point for the company and its flagship console. When the Xbox One launched in 2013, Microsoft’s marketing strategy failed the console: The Xbox 360 had succeeded in capturing a major gaming audience, but Microsoft looked to the Xbox One to become a full-on entertainment system. Microsoft’s Xbox One launch was a disaster. It focused too much on one thing. Butvideo games. Microsoft soon realized that gamers needed to be re-engaged, but it never abandoned its entertainment platform.

After Microsoft had been pushing publicly for Xbox to be primarily focused on video games, Novak was appointed head of Xbox Research and Design. Although consoles are still very important, Xbox’s most exciting vision was to allow players to access Xbox games from any device. This began with Xbox Play Anywhere which allowed users to use their Xbox console or Windows PC.

Phil Spencer, Xbox CEO, has a simple idea. Gamers need to be able play their games wherever they are using the Xbox ecosystem. Xbox leadership focused its efforts on cloud streaming, which would bring Xbox to mobile phones. Novak pointed to Microsoft’s Touch Adaptation Kit for Xbox Cloud Gaming as a particularly proud moment in his career at the company.

Image: Bizarre Creations, Ltd./Microsoft Game Studios

“How big is that challenge when you’re trying to build experiences of entire games on a device that it was never designed for? That was the challenge at hand,” Novak said. “We spent a huge amount of time as part of the xCloud effort, with the xCloud engineers, chasing that down and making sure that all the technology allowed us to render this output to any device. […] That is one of my proudest moments.”

Another feature he looks back to fondly is Xbox’s photo modes and achievements; Xbox Live originally almost launched with a limit of just five achievements. Novak and his colleagues realized this with Project Gotham Racing 2. that achievements reinforced Microsoft’s philosophy that different styles of play were acceptable. In Project Gotham Racing 2Most people want to win races or go fast. However, some gamers wanted to photograph shopfronts or explore the environment. Novak’s mantra of “Play your way” has remained with the company for many decades.

Novak’s largest challenge, he said, was balancing experimental changes with keeping things comfortable for the player. “It’s very easy to build things which are new but not better,” Novak said. “And most people want their gaming experience to be comfortable and familiar and fast. You should connect them to what they need as soon as you can. And if you are doing something completely new, ask them for a different button, or to consider a different flow. And they might be frustrated with that.”

Microsoft. Image

Novak continued: “Getting that balance is a continuous challenge.”

Novak said he’s leaving Microsoft to take time off from work and refocus his life. Novak expressed his desire to spend time learning new skills after the death of someone close to him in 2003. He won’t move on to a new company immediately.

“I’m just about to be 20 years with Xbox,” Novak said. “For me, some of the things that are coming up for Xbox, which are tremendously exciting, would be committing to years worth of work there. That would be incredible. Do I really want to do that? Or do I want to acknowledge that I’m happy with what we’ve shipped? What do I need to do? Do I have the right idea of going out on my learning journey and trying other things? If I don’t do that now, when do I do that?”