While Mixer has faced its fair share of layoffs in the past couple of months, which also includes Mixer co-founder James Boehm announcing his departure from Microsoft to help with gamer hand lotion known as Gamer Goo, it now looks like Xbox corporate vice-president Mike Ybarra has also left Microsoft.
Speaking of departures at Mixer, Matt Salsamendi, best known as the co-founder of the service, is yet another head leaving Microsoft according to his farewell letter. This means he’s leaving with his Gamer Goo friend, except instead of pursuing hand lotion he’s looking to chase lasers:
After 5 incredible years, tomorrow will be my last day at Mixer. A bit about the story of Beam and what’s next for me below. Thank you, for everything. pic.twitter.com/bvAktSSpPh
— Matt (@MattSalsamendi) October 10, 2019
Now it’s time to turn our attention to a big player at Microsoft. After serving the big “M” for a long time, it looks like he’s venturing forth to do other things without Phil Spencer and crew. However, Ybarra — the guy that once acted as the CVP in charge of Xbox Live, Xbox Game Pass, and Mixer — has not yet announced where he’ll be going next or what he’ll be doing as per finance.yahoo.com.
The website did post this tweet from Ybarra, though:
After 20 years at Microsoft, it’s time for my next adventure. It’s been a great ride at Xbox and the future is bright. Thanks to everyone at TeamXbox, I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished and I wish you the best. More soon on what’s next for me (super excited)! 1/2…
— Mike Ybarra (@XboxQwik) October 9, 2019
A follow-up tweet by Ybarra also hints that whatever his next move is still deals with the games industry:
Thanks, I’m not done giving every ounce of energy I have to try and make gaming better for everyone. Soon…! https://t.co/7zpZBrbqL4
— Mike Ybarra (@XboxQwik) October 9, 2019
Lastly, finance.yahoo.com explains that before joining the Xbox team, Ybarra helped with Windows as a systems engineer and then became the general manager for Windows 7.
After 2008, Ybarra joined the Xbox Live team, moved over to manage Xbox Game Studios’ partner studio efforts, and later became the corporate vice president at Xbox. Now he’s looking to move on to something else related to video games — if his tweet is anything to go by.
