Larry Hryb, higher often called “Main Nelson” in Xbox circles, tweeted as we speak that he’s leaving Microsoft. Hryb spent a few years as one of the crucial outstanding public faces of the model as Director of Programming for Xbox Stay. He didn’t state his causes for leaving the corporate however mentioned he plans to step again and work on his profession’s subsequent chapter. The transfer comes as Microsoft tries to shut its $68 billion buy of Activision. “As I take a second and take into consideration all we have now carried out collectively, I need to thank the thousands and thousands of players around the globe who’ve included me as a part of their lives,” Hryb mentioned.

Hryb spent over 20 years with Microsoft, becoming a member of the corporate as editor-in-chief of MSN Music in 2001. However in 2003, when he joined the Xbox division, he discovered his id with the corporate. His public position was a mix of official worker and tremendous fan. His weblog posts, podcasts, interviews, unboxings and different varied updates straddled the road between a advertising govt and a trusted “gamer’s gamer,” serving to followers really feel like they’d one among their very own on the within on the gaming behemoth.

Xbox had used him much less as a face of the corporate in recent times, however from at the very least the mid-2000s to the mid-2010s, “Main Nelson” was virtually synonymous with the platform. He says he acquired his gamer deal with and public nickname from Larry Hagman’s character within the Nineteen Sixties sitcom I Dream of Jeannie — after his TiVo advisable it.

Hryb hasn’t but detailed what his subsequent profession chapter is. Nonetheless, he did word that The Official Xbox Podcast, which he hosted, will take a hiatus this summer season and return later “in a brand new format.”