Ed Fries, former head of Microsoft Game Studios.

Ed Fries, former head of Microsoft Game Studios.

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.

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Episoder(179)

Tom Keegan, performance director (Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Battlefield, Resident Evil 2 Remake).

Tom Keegan, performance director (Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Battlefield, Resident Evil 2 Remake).

Tom Keegan is one of the leading performance directors in video games, whose career spans theatre, film, animation, and interactive entertainment. After starting out in the New York theatre scene, he ...

10 Mar 1h 24min

Keza Macdonald, author, games editor The Guardian.

Keza Macdonald, author, games editor The Guardian.

Keza Macdonald is a Scottish journalist and editor who has spent more than two decades chronicling the culture and business of video games. She started early, as a junior staff writer for GamesTM whil...

3 Mar 1h 38min

Prokop Jirsa, lead designer (Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2).

Prokop Jirsa, lead designer (Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2).

Prokop Jirsa is a Czech game designer whose work has helped redefine what historical realism can look like in a modern role-playing game. After completing his Master’s degree at the Prague University ...

17 Feb 1h 23min

Dr. Elin Festøy, creative producer (My Child Lebensborn; My Child: New Beginnings)

Dr. Elin Festøy, creative producer (My Child Lebensborn; My Child: New Beginnings)

Dr. Elin Festøy is a Norwegian creative producer, researcher, and storyteller whose work uses interactive media to illuminate some of the most painful and overlooked histories of the 20th century. Aft...

10 Feb 1h 14min

Jon Ingold, co-founder Inkle (80 Days, Expelled!, TR-49).

Jon Ingold, co-founder Inkle (80 Days, Expelled!, TR-49).

Jon Ingold is a British game designer and writer whose work has helped redefine how narrative, choice, and player agency function in interactive storytelling. He began making parser-based text adventu...

3 Feb 1h 32min

MPC Remastered: Phil Fish

MPC Remastered: Phil Fish

Before the start of My Perfect Console's fourth season, we revisit a classic early episode with the reclusive game designer, Phil Fish.Phil studied game design in Montreal and, after a brief stint wor...

27 Jan 1h 12min

MPC Remastered: Heather Anne Campbell

MPC Remastered: Heather Anne Campbell

Before the start of My Perfect Console's fourth season, we revisit a classic early episode with comedian, writer and podcaster, Heather Anne Campbell.My guest today is an Emmy-nominated writer, sketch...

20 Jan 1h 5min

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