Ed Fries

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Ed Fries
Fries looking into the camera
Ed Fries in 2015
NationalityAmerican
Occupations
EmployerMicrosoft (1986–2004)
Notable workHalo 2600

Ed Fries (/ˈfriːz/ "freeze") is an American video game programmer and entrepreneur who was the vice president of game publishing at Microsoft during much of the Xbox's life-cycle.

Early life

Fries fell in love with games while playing arcade games in the early 1980s. Both of his parents were engineers, and he sees in his love for games something similar to his father's love for airplanes while working at Boeing.[1] As a teen he programmed a clone of Frogger for the Atari 8-bit computers which was distributed through bulletin board systems.[2] It was seen by someone from game publisher Romox who offered him a job, and the game was published as The Princess and the Frog in 1982. Fries wrote two other games for Romox: Ant-Eater (similar to Dig Dug) and Sea Chase.[3] Ant-Eater was reviewed by C&VG, who gave it a 7/10 for "getting started," and graphics, a 4/10 for value, and a 7/10 for playability.[4]

Fries co-founded Tom & Ed’s Bogus Software with Tom Saxton. They developed the original Fish! screensaver, which was later adapted by Berkeley Systems into the popular series of Aquatic Realm / Fish! After Dark screensaver modules.[5]

Microsoft

After earning a B.S. in Computer Science from New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in 1986 Fries returned to the Seattle area to join Microsoft on productivity software. He has referred to this time as being like Ender's Game and says "We were recruited as children to fight in their wars, Excel vs Lotus 1-2-3 and Word vs WordPerfect."[1]

In the late 1990s he led the team that created the first version of the Xbox game console.[1] He was a prime evangelist of the platform to game developers and had an important role in the acquisition of developers Bungie, Ensemble Studios and Rare.[6]

After Microsoft

Fries left Microsoft in January 2004.[6] He consulted with a startup company, FireAnt, that was later sold to Sony Online Entertainment. He was also involved with several startups including Ageia, which aims to bring the first "physics accelerator" chip for games to market, and Emotiv Systems, a company building an EEG based game controller.

Fries is currently[when?] working on bringing his favorite game,[citation needed] World of Warcraft, to three-dimensional life with his startup company, Figure Prints. The company makes 3D models of a player's characters using a fleet of Z Corporation printers. Within the first 12 hours of his company going live, over 4,000 people had requested an order for a model. Fries explains in an interview that each model can take about one week to complete.

In July 2010, Fries released an Atari 2600 game inspired by the Halo series, called Halo 2600.[7]

Since 2012 until 2015 he was an advisor for the Ouya, an Android-based game console, as well as advisor for Animoca Brands[8] and numerous other brands.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b c Brightman, James (February 5, 2014). "The Saga of Ed Fries". Gamesindustry.biz. Retrieved April 20, 2015.
  2. ^ Stilphen, Scott (2015). "Ed Fries interview". Atari Compendium.
  3. ^ Hague, James. "The Giant List of Classic Game Programmers".
  4. ^ Pratt, Terry, ed. (September 1983). "Reviews". Computer & Video Games. Durrant House, 8 Herbal Hill. London EC1R 5JB: EMAP National Publications. ISSN 0261-3697. Retrieved 27 May 2021.{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  5. ^ "Bet on Black: How Microsoft and Xbox Changed Pop Culture".
  6. ^ a b Bishop, Todd (January 14, 2004). "The game is over for Xbox's Ed Fries". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved September 2, 2010.
  7. ^ Beschizza, Rob (August 3, 2010). "Former Microsoft VP brings Halo to the Atari 2600". BoingBoing. Retrieved September 2, 2010.
  8. ^ "Animoca Brands acquires Pixowl, developer of the Sandbox game".
  9. ^ "Ed Fries Work Experience". LinkedIn.
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