One of Xbox Live's Creators Has Left Microsoft

The man who helped transform Xbox Live from a network of desktop PCs running under its developers' desks to a service connecting some 39 million game-playing folk has left Microsoft. Eric Neustadter has worked at the company for 18-and-a-half years, 14-and-a-half of those dedicated to Xbox where he's most recently served as the platform's director of architecture. He recently returned from a sabbatical, and the co-host of the Major Nelson podcast hasn't yet made any indication of what's he's going to do next. If you'd like some more info on who the man who holds the first-created gamertag ("e") is, you should definitely read this two-part history on building Xbox Live which chronicles the birth of the service and its relaunch with the Xbox 360's 2005 release. They're worth your time -- I promise.