Microsoft lays off Xbox Vice President after 37 years with the company
PC: LinkedIn Kevin LaChapelle’s 37-year Microsoft journey ends after Xbox layoffs PC: LinkedIn From Xbox backward compatibility to cloud gaming: The projects that shaped LaChapelle’s
PC: LinkedIn Kevin LaChapelle’s 37-year Microsoft journey ends after Xbox layoffs PC: LinkedIn From Xbox backward compatibility to cloud gaming: The projects that shaped LaChapelle’s career Kevin LaChapelle thanks Kareem Choudhry for lasting impact at Xbox Xbox community pays tribute to Kevin LaChapelle Microsoft's latest layoffs The latest round of job cuts at Microsoft has affected employees across different parts of the business, including long-serving figures who helped shape some of Xbox's best-known features. Among those leaving is Kevin LaChapelle, Vice President of Xbox Platform, whose departure brings to a close a career spanning 37 years at the company. His announcement came through a personal LinkedIn post, where he confirmed that he had been laid off as part of Microsoft's ongoing restructuring. Rather than focusing on the circumstances of his exit, LaChapelle reflected on the projects that defined his years at Xbox, the colleagues he worked alongside and the experiences that stayed with him. His message quickly attracted responses from former co-workers, developers and Xbox players, many of whom remembered his work on features that became central to the platform.Kevin LaChapelle joined Microsoft in 1989, according to his LinkedIn profile, and spent time working across several parts of the company before taking on senior responsibilities within the Xbox division.In his farewell message, he confirmed that his time at Microsoft had come to an end following the latest wave of layoffs.He described the departure simply, saying that he was adding his name to the growing list of Xbox employees who had lost their jobs.Instead of looking back at job titles or promotions, LaChapelle chose to highlight the work that meant the most to him.
He said his favourite memories came from leading the engineering team behind Xbox's backward compatibility programme, the feature that allowed newer Xbox consoles to play games released for previous generations.LaChapelle recalled the moment the backward compatibility programme was publicly introduced at E3 2015, describing the audience response as one of the defining memories of his career.He later led the team responsible for Xbox Cloud Gaming, Microsoft's streaming service that lets players access games across supported devices without relying solely on dedicated gaming hardware. Looking ahead, he said he believes streamed entertainment will continue to become a larger part of how people access games and other media.Even while announcing his departure, he wished the Xbox team well and said he looked forward to seeing how the platform develops in the years ahead.Toward the end of his post, LaChapelle singled out one former colleague for special thanks.He credited Manager, Kareem Choudhry with having the biggest influence on his time at Xbox, describing him as the best manager he worked with during his years at Microsoft.
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