Xbox icon ‘Major Nelson’ is leaving the company after 20 years

By Tomas Franzese July 14, 2023

Larry Hryb — better-known to Xbox fans by his gamer tag Major Nelson, as the senior director of corporate communications for Xbox, and as host of the official Xbox podcast — is moving on from his position at Microsoft.

Larry Hryb holding an Xbox microphone at an Xbox event. — Microsoft

Hryb worked at Xbox for two decades, starting as editor-in-chief of MSN Music before becoming a senior project manager at Xbox during the early days of the Xbox Live and Xbox 360 era. He gained the most notoriety for hosting a “Major Nelson Radio” podcast, which was one of the first to give players an inside look into game development and the people who make games. That transformed into the official Xbox Podcast, which Hryb hosted alongside other duties.

Before Phil Spencer, Hryb was the face of Xbox for a lot of people, so this is a pretty significant departure for Xbox, which is coming off an outstanding June 2023 showcase. Hryb explained his reasoning for his departure from Microsoft on Twitter.

“After 20 incredible years, I have decided to take a step back and work on the next chapter of my career,” Hryb wrote. “As I take a moment and think about all we have done together, I want to thank the millions of gamers around the world who have included me as part of their lives. Also, thanks to Xbox team members for trusting me to have a direct dialogue with our customers. The future is bright for Xbox and, as a gamer, I am excited to see the evolution. Thank you and I’ll see you online.”

Hryb went on to confirm that the Xbox Podcast will go on a hiatus following his departure, but says it will come back in a new format sometime in the future. He did not reveal more about what exactly that “next chapter” of his career is just yet.

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Tomas Franzese is a Staff Writer at Digital Trends, where he reports on and reviews the latest releases and exciting…

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