Xbox chief Shane Kim steps down, Spencer and Durkin promoted

by Griffin McElroy on Sep 14th 2009 7:50PM

After 19 years of working for gaming/computing software juggernaut Microsoft, Shane Kim will step down at the end of this year, according to a report from Gamasutra. His duties as vice president of strategy and business development for the company's Interactive Entertainment Business sector will be filled by Phil Spencer, general manager of Microsoft Game Studios, and Dennis Durkin, chief financial officer for the IEB division.

When asked for his reasons for stepping down, Kim replied, "Well, the JoBro (ed: Jonas Brothers) are about to go on tour again, and, well, you know. You only live once, and that one life should be spent seeing as many JoBro (ed: Jonas Brothers) concerts as humanly possible."

Okay, he didn't really say that. However, a Microsoft representative reportedly told Gamasutra that Kim "expressed a desire to spend more time with family, so that's why he's making his retirement." More details about the two-decade Microsoft veteran's departure should be coming in a press release soon. We wish Mr. Kim the best of luck with his newly acquired free time.

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Tags: Dennis-Durkin, microsoft, phil-harrison, retirement, shane-kim, vp, xbox, xbox-360

Reader Comments (44)

Getting out before the firestorm, are we?

And what I mean by saying this is:

FLAME ON!!!!!!!!!

NO!

You will not destroy this comment section.

FLAME OFF!

lol all i see is rats fleeing a sinking ship

Is....is that Longhorn?

Good Gawd, you're a tool. What are you, Killjebus 2.0?

Well, if that's really his reason, then good for him. He obviously should be well off enough to be in a position to choose family over work, and it's always nice to hear about a businessman/woman doing this. Too often I feel like people get sucked into that whole business world and family goes by the wayside. This is why I'm going to marry a teacher and be poor. :P

Saria,

Now is not the time to be marrying teachers. They will not only bring in little money, but many diseases. Such as swine flu.

.... Or, Social Studies. *Shiver*

I'm not a teacher but I am poor. ; )

Good for him. I wish I could retire soon.

@fundando: It's a terrible state of affairs in the U.S. Even my 70+ year old grandpa is still working AFTER retirement, and he's a DENTIST. Retirement age is climbing, and it's awful that people have to continue working so hard only to enjoy next to nothing when they finally do retire. I am not anti-American or anything but if you look at most other 1st world countries, the U.S. is wayyy behind when it comes to this. Try France's retirement age at thirty-fucking-eight.

Sorry, didn't meant to get all political there. I know I will probably get some flames for this.

I'm moving to France.

Well, whenever I see someone make a comment like this, it always makes me think that they've been neglecting their family for far too long and have lacked any balance in their life. Kim may not have been that way, but it always makes me wonder.

Take the Kansas State football coach Bill Snyder. He was legendary for working crazy hours (like 20 hours a day during the season), and then he finally retired saying he needed to spend more time with his family. If you spend a major chunk of the year basically living out of your office, you aren't spending any time with your family.

Funny thing is, he made it 3 years and now he's back coaching the team again. Guess he didn't need to spend *that* much time with his family.

Oh, and I second the motion to move to France.

My grandmother (70+ years old) still works. The kicker is that she works as an in-house care giver for the elderly. Try to wrap your brain around that one. She's a great grandmother, but she is in no position to be caring for the elderly.

Retirement is a pipe dream for a lot of hard working people in this country. If Shane Kim needs to take a few years off to raise his children, or something of that nature, then I say more power to him. If only we could all do that.

(Also, unlike Saria, I'm in the market for a rich wife and/or waifu with loads of cash. Call me)

*sigh* if only i actually owned a world spanning multibillion dollar company

You can't fool us, Bruce.

Get off your computer and go smash some faces.

Hey Dark Wayne uhh....yeah....I'm game with moving to Massachusetts if you are. Just saying.

I'm not signing a pre-nup though.

The Bat outwits the Joker and the Riddler for breakfast, and you think you're going to trap him with a quick over-the-border marriage?

I, much like BananaBoat, am in this to find a rich dying heiress. Hopefully her house has lots of stairs.

"I'm moving to France."

I'll probably be going with you. It's hard to get citizenship there, though. My friend's cousin worked there for a couple of years to get her citizenship.

Anyways, the health care coverage and community over there is phenomenal.

C'est totalement bien.

in before some douche says this has to do with the ps3 price cut or the console war

oh wait, too late

Kill yourself

Guy's probably made more than enough to have him and the rest of his family sit on their asses the rest of their lives anyway. More power to him if he wants to spend time with his kids while they're young (at least...I'm guessing they're young).

Can you take away points, too?

I would like 16,000 points subtracted from IDUNNOLOL's account, please.

Now if only we can get rid of Aaron Greenberg!

*Salut* My favorite person at Microsoft is going to leave.

I heard he was gonna do a press conference but he was afraid Kanye West would interrupt him and say Peter Moore was the best exec of all time.

Well...

Haha!

Well played my friend, well played. [thumbs up]

I think it would be pretty fitting if he stayed home and played Xbox after this

By family, he meant Halo: ODST. Cheeky bastard.

Or maybe some Uncharted 2? Just sayin'.

Whatever your console allegiance/ fanboy position/ doggone cussedness, Shane Kim = Legend. He will be sorely missed.

I agree. Great spokesman for MS, and always stood by what he said. I loved listening to his interviews on Major Nelson's podcasts.

lol they so gave him the boot that whole I am retiring thing is a joke. He is just saying that to save face.

Yes, MS is firing one of their best execs out of the Xbox department after it has enjoyed a very good last few years under his command. Your logic is infalible.

No you idiot that is common practice if lets say what you say is true then why leave now to be with his family? Please this is the common practice other corporate companies use all over the world.

Its obvious you have never worked in a corporate environment I do and not only that I use to work writing up the letters these big guys have to sign when they step down from there position. MS is letting him save face by stating he is going to spend time with his family that sounds better than MS coming out and saying he was fired for reason of there own.

After 19 years with Microsoft you better be able to retire comfortably!

So I see two jobs are open, where can I send my resume?

This GLOBAL recession has hit my family hard, I've been off since Oct. 08'....

HELP ME!!!

You know what? I clicked the link, however I removed your referral from the URL beforehand.

U MAD?

Shane Kim has done more for this industry than most people will ever know. He and his team made the industry competitive again. What does competition give us? Take a look at some of those AAA titles in your game library. Those games were created because there are guys like Shane Kim, Phil Harrison, Seamus Blackley, Peter Moore, Bernie Stolar and Hiroshi Yamauchi striving for innovation at the hardware level.

The gaming industry is successful because it was these men. Show some fucking respect.

Great.
Now maybe the xbla marketplace/theme section will be better priced or they may even let a theme be free(at the request of the MAKER)?

Seems like that's just about the last of the original xbox crew...

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Xbox chief Shane Kim steps down, Spencer and Durkin promoted

Reader Comments (44)

Posted: Sep 14th 2009 7:52PM Wiizer said

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