Xbox Veteran Who Helped Create Achievements Has Left Microsoft

Xbox's Chris Novak--a Microsoft veteran who helped create, design, and implement the user experience for iconic Xbox features and programs like Achievements, Game Pass, and Xbox Live--has left the company after nearly 20 years.

Novak was most recently the head of research and design at Xbox. Over the years, he helped design and execute Xbox's Achievement system and photo modes, which are now popular inside Xbox and among other gaming consoles and companies. Novak remarked to Polygon that one of his biggest challenges was designing things that are both new and better.

"Most people want their gaming experience to be comfortable and familiar and fast. It should be connecting them to the thing they want as fast as possible, and anytime you do something new, you might be asking them to use a different button or to think about a different flow. And they might be frustrated with that," Novak said.

Novak is taking time off and considering his options, following the loss of a person close to him three years ago, according to Polygon. He isn't going to join a new company right away.

He told the site that there are "tremendously exciting" things coming up for Xbox. Sticking around, however, would mean committing to "years of work," and he wanted to refocus his life instead.

"It would be amazing. But do I want to commit to that? Or do I want to acknowledge that I'm happy with what we've shipped? Do I actually need to go out on my own and continue my own learning journey, trying some other things. If I don't do that now, when do I do that?" he said.

Before becoming Xbox's head of research and design in 2016, Novak was a design architect at Xbox starting in 2009. In that role, he helped design HoloLens and games like Ryse: Son of Rome and Sunset Overdrive, according to his LinkedIn page.

He started at Xbox in 2002, when he was a design director. In that role, he worked on games like Project Gotham Racing 2-4, Crackdown, and the original Forza Motorsport.

Before joining Xbox, Novak was a designer and line producer at EA for five years, from 1995-2000. At EA, Novak worked on PGA Tour 96, Andretti Racing, NASCAR 98-2000, and Knockout Kings 2000.