Microsoft's Xbox Live security lead leaves on good terms
updated 02:40 pm EST, Sat February 4, 2012
Microsoft's well-known Stepto quits in shift
Microsoft took another loss to its Xbox divsion Friday after its Director of Xbox Live Policy and Enforcement, Stephen Toulouse, resigned from the company. Often known as Stepto, he planned to finish his term at the company on February 15. He stressed that the exit was amicable and a matter of looking for a life change, with no other companies in mind.
"Despite the wonderful ability in Microsoft to change careers pretty dramatically inside the company, I’ve been there nearly 18 years and it’s the only world I’ve really ever known," he said. "I feel too strangely comfortable, and too strangely tied."
He wouldn't directly answer media questions until after he was done, although he already expected to finish writing an ongoing book and to "explore other opportunities."
Toulouse's exit follows that of an Xbox Live marketer and the longer term exits of alumni like J Allard, Robbie Bach, and Otto Berkes. None constitutes a mass defection but shows a changing of the guard at Microsoft's gaming division.
Some have been moving within Microsoft to the Xbox division as it changes from a pure gaming division to a general media platform where gaming is just the most important element.
