A few days ago, one small tweet had a huge effect on gaming, even though many won’t realise it.
That Tweet was from a gifted programmer by the name of Boyd Multerer, and it quietly announced his departure from Xbox. In many ways it’s a little sad that, even among Xbox gamers, that name will go unrecognised. Multerer has made HUGE contributions to Xbox over the last 17 years, and is responsible for some of the most important aspects and features that we all know and love.
Multerer started with Microsoft in 1997 and quickly became a key player in the development of the Xbox. In 2000, he put a team together to begin work on what was then called ‘Xbox Online’ and he led development of the online component of the original Xbox. Multerer was responsible for picking the development team and led both the programming and the design of Microsoft’s online gaming service. In particular it was his direction and leadership which ensured that, from day one, there was strong emphasis on security and anti-cheating measures.
In 2002 Boyd saw this ambitious dream come to fruition as he became the first person to log onto what we now know as Xbox Live. For their work on Xbox Live, Multerer and his team not only received a Microsoft Technical Achievement Award, they also won a Technology & Engineering Emmy. The work started by Multerer is now used daily by 46 million subscribers around the world: A pretty big achievement in anyone’s books.
However, this was only the start of Multerer’s influence on Microsoft gaming.
In 2004, Microsoft began to receive feedback from early developers that the Xbox 360 was a difficult platform to program on. Multerer left Xbox Live and was moved to focus on the core operating systems of the Xbox 360. Rather than simply try to teach the developers how to work with the system, Boyd chose instead to develop ‘XNA’. XNA is a game programming language based on the ‘.Net Framework’ that allows developers to create video games from the ground up. By doing this Multerer ensured that all developers could easily, and relatively quickly, produce Xbox 360 games and so was fundamental to the success of the 360 in the last generation of consoles.
However, the benefits and applications of XNA went far beyond the professional. XNA was designed to make coding easy and fun for anyone and everyone that wanted to give it a go. This mean that anyone who wanted to could write code and run it on their Xbox. As a result of this vision, XNA is currently used in thousands of schools and universities as a teaching tool. It is also the basis of several game developing platforms currently available.
Once XNA was in place, Boyd became the leader of the Xbox 360 operating system team. As such he was responsible for the machine’s UI evolution from the initial menu system through the ‘blades’ and on to the metro system.
Most recently He was responsible for the design of the core architecture of the Xbox One. Perhaps more importantly, he was one of the visionaries behind the integration of Cloud computing into the Xbox One, which he presented at E3 2013. He has also been often quoted as confirming that the Cloud system will allow the Xbox One to become more powerful over time. –Well, if anyone is placed to make that statement, it’s certainly the man that designed the architecture and the cloud integration!
Boyd was working on a ‘super-secret’ project until his departure from the Xbox team, and speculation is rife about what that may have been – however his lips remain tightly sealed. Given his skills and vision, the most likely candidates are the upcoming VR tech that has been teased by Phil Spencer and the MS team, or the cross integration of Windows 10 and Xbox One that has been the focus of much recent industry speculation.
Despite what some of the more click-batey sites would have you believe, Multerer’s departure from Xbox is not a huge shock. A very insightful interview with Boyd last year on the Microsoft site (which I would recommend to all of you, here) identified that he was already intending to take a sabbatical to catch up on several personal coding projects he’d been neglecting, as well as helping his wife launch her new startup and teaching his kids robotics and website design.
Even back then he was asked what would come after that and merely responded
“I can’t really talk about it, but I’ll be working on exciting things”
So its unlikely we’ve seen the last of Boyd -and based on what he has done for us over the last 17 years I think we can rest assured that whatever he does next is going to be pretty special.
In the meantime I’m sure you will join me in thanking Boyd for his HUGE role in making the gaming systems that we know and love.
Shine on, you crazy diamond.
^HooksaN(@HooksaN)
David Hook (HooksaN) contributed 26 articles to ICXM between 2014–2015, covering game reviews, and Xbox news with a focus on hands-on impressions and verified-source reporting. Their bylines on the site span the Xbox One’s first full year of post-launch coverage, including the early days of Backwards Compatibility and Windows 10 gaming. They post on X as @Hooksan.