A key member of the Xbox team is leaving the company. Catarina Macedo said goodbye to the Xbox team yesterday, in a decision she said was very difficult.
Macedo has worked as the Senior Program Manager in Xbox's research and development division. She recently released a statement via Twitter to discuss her departure from Xbox, coming just over a year after another high-level executive left Microsoft in October 2019.
Macedo said she has nothing but respect for the entire Xbox team, and that she is happy to have been able to carry out Xbox's consumer-friendly mission of "empowering" and "inspiring" gamers and the industry. She also said she will dearly miss those she was able to work with.
Although perhaps not the most front-facing individual at Microsoft, Macedo has appeared on Xbox streams to promote accessibility options for the Xbox Series X, and even the launch celebration stream last week. Macedo followed up her tweet with a bevy of posts about how much she has appreciated working with Xbox, how hard she worked to get to this point, and how being a part of the Xbox team has been the "greatest honor of her life."
Macedo did not reveal what she is doing next, but with the idea that leaving Xbox was such a difficult decision, it is likely that she had an exciting offer elsewhere. Another veteran of Microsoft, Veronica Rogers, moved to PlayStation earlier this year, but Macedo's next step is not yet known. She is a member of the Forbes 30 Under 30 group, so Macedo will likely continue to climb as she has made a name for herself in the industry.
After some of the darker years of the Xbox One, the team at Microsoft has found itself in a very successful place, thanks partially to the leadership of Phil Spencer. Macedo seems to have enjoyed her time with the company, as her experience reportedly made her decision to leave that much more difficult.
As far as Xbox is concerned, fans likely shouldn't be worried about Macedo's departure. Members of the team come and go, and Microsoft is a company that countless individuals would love to work for. It also is not out of the ordinary for key employees to leave after a successful launch of a console, or video game for that matter. Macedo did her part in helping transition Xbox to the next generation, and now she will transition to whatever her next role may be.