Xbox Veteran Shannon Loftis Retires From Microsoft After 29 Years
Image: Shannon Loftis, Age of Empires / World's Edge

There's some major industry news coming out of the Microsoft camp today, as Xbox veteran Shannon Loftis has announced that she's retiring from Microsoft after 29 years of service to the company.

Loftis, who most recently has been serving as the head of Age of Empires developer World's Edge, shared her goodbye message on the AoE website, explaining that she wanted to spend more time with her family and her hobbies:

"After 29 years at Microsoft, I’ve decided to retire to spend more time with family, on my hobbies, and of course playing games."

"I always told myself that I’d leave Microsoft only at a high point, and there has been no higher point than this. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for the support, passion, fun, commitment, feedback and joy you’ve all provided for all of us."

Before she headed up the World's Edge team, Loftis contributed to over 40 games throughout her career including Fable, Project Gotham Racing, Viva Pinata and Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, and also built and managed various global teams at Microsoft. She was the head of first-party publishing at Xbox a few years ago, too.

As you can imagine, various industry names have been taking to social media to celebrate her achievements and wish her all the best in retirement today, including Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer:

"One of the most rewarding and insightful parts of my career has been getting to work with Shannon Loftis. All the best Shannon on your future endeavors."

"Shannon will be deeply missed, so many great memories from Kinect Adventures to Publishing days to rebuilding & relaunching our most treasured PC franchise. But I most respect Shannon’s approach to building teams & how she treated her team & partners."

From all of us here at Pure Xbox, thank you Shannon — and enjoy your retirement!

[source ageofempires.com]