Ed Fries, former head of Microsoft Game Studios.
From My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin by Simon Parkin
February 24, 2026 · 1h 40m · Episode 149
About this episode
The episode features Ed Fries, a key figure in the development of Microsoft Game Studios and the original Xbox.
My guest today is a video game executive whose career spans the medium’s earliest home computers to the rise of the modern console business. He created his first games for the Atari 800 in the early 1980s, before joining Microsoft in 1986, where he spent a decade as an early developer on Excel and Word . In 1996, he left the Office team to pursue his passion for games, founding Microsoft Game Studios and laying the groundwork for the company’s entry into interactive entertainment. Over the next eight years, he grew the division from fifty people to more than twelve hundred, publishing over a hundred games—including more than a dozen million-sellers—and co-founding the original Xbox project. Since retiring from Microsoft in 2004, he has worked as an advisor, board member, and investor, and in 2019 helped launch 1Up Ventures , a fund dedicated to supporting independent game developers around the world. Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin…
People in this episode
Host: Simon Parkin
Guest: Ed Fries
Topics covered
- video game history
- Microsoft Game Studios
- independent game development
- Xbox creation
- game publishing
Keywords
- Ed Fries
- Microsoft Game Studios
- Xbox
- video games
- game development
- independent developers
- Atari 800
- Excel
- Word
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Microsoft Game Studios, Microsoft, 1Up Ventures
Products: Xbox, Excel, Word
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