Ed Fries : Lead Developer of the Gaming Console Xbox
From the invention of computers decades ago till today, when the technology has surpassed innovations, games have also been evolving tremendously. Starting from the 8-bit block type games to the high-end graphics almost life-like games, have made their way in the market. Companies, like Atari and Microsoft, brought some of the earliest games which became widely popular all over the world. Genius people have contributed their bit to the development of the gaming sector from years, and have set a landmark in the industry. One such figure is Ed Fries.
Early Life
Ed Fries, born on 1954, is an American video-game programmer and an entrepreneur. It was in the early 1980s when he fell in love with video games while playing the arcade games. His father worked at the Boeing an Aircraft manufacturing company and his mother was an engineer. His father loved the aeroplanes more than anything and Fries also found similar love with games. Fries got a B.S. in Computer Science from New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, in 1986.
Ed’s first program was a clone of Frogger that he developed for the Atari 8-bit family and was distributed using the bulletin board system. Developing this clone proved to be a lucky move for Fries, as someone from the gaming industry noticed his game and offered him a job. In 1982, Fries published his first game, which was named as The Princess and the Frog. The game was published by Romox. Fries wrote two more games for Romox, which were named as Ant-Eater and Sea Chase.
Career
Just after earning his BS degree, Fries went to the Seattle area, to join Microsoft. During his ten-years job with Microsoft, he worked on the productivity software like Excel and Word. He worked at Microsoft for ten years. During this time he also created Microsoft Game Studios.
Initially, he was handling the team of around fifty people and over the course of eight years, the team increased to above twelve hundred people. The team developed and published more than 100 games, among which a lot of games were sold to more than a dozen million customers.
It was in the late 1990s when Fries led a team which created the first version of the Xbox gaming console. The development of Xbox put Microsoft on the top list in the interactive entertainment business. Fries was the most important figure among the game development community and played a pivotal role in the acquisition of Bungie, Ensemble Studios, and Rare.
Career after Microsoft
Fries left Microsoft in January 2004 and, started consulting various startups. One of the companies he consulted was FireAnt which was later acquired by Sony Online Entertainment. Some other startups Fries was involved with were Ageia and Emotive Systems. Ageia, a company building an EEG based game controller, claims to bring the first “physics accelerator” chip for games and Emotive Systems.
Fries’ favourite game is World of Warcraft, and he is currently working on bringing the game into a three-dimensional life. This project is carried out by his own startup company Figure Prints. The company deals with making 3D models of a player’s characters, using Z Corporation printers.
Fries said in an interview that within just 12 hours of taking his company to live, more than 4000 people ordered a model. “It takes almost a week to complete one model”, he explained further. His another favourite game Halo got an updated version called Halo 2600, which was released as an Atari 2600. Currently, Fries serves as an advisor for Ouya, which is an Android-based game console and development program.
Harshal Pawar is an avid reader, a TV show addict, and a writer. He has a personal blog brainwork.wordpress.com where he jots down his articles and poetry about love and life.
He is currently pursuing film-making and wishes to bring the words written on a paper to the screen. More of all he is a scorpio.
