Age of Empires studio leader Shannon Loftis retires after 29 years at Microsoft

Shannon Loftis, a longtime game leader at Microsoft, is retiring from the company’s Age of Empires studio after 29 years at Microsoft.

Loftis is going out an a high note, as her World’s Edge studio shipped Age of Empires IV, a major revival for the real-time strategy game series, back in October.

“It’s hard to believe, but 2022 is going to be an even bigger year for Age of Empires than 2021 was,” Loftis said in a Facebook post. “The team has so many great things planned and underway, and we can’t wait to share everything with you. But first, I have some personal news.”

She said she decided to retire to spend more time with family, on her hobbies, and playing games.

“Words can’t express how much it has meant to me to be part of the Age journey over the past five plus years,” Loftis wrote. “It has been the greatest honor of my game development career to be part of this community — to listen to you, to play with you, and to celebrate with you.”

She added, “Team Xbox has been an amazing environment to incubate our dreams, and the support we’ve had across the board from Phil Spencer, Matt Booty and Aaron Greenberg, to the PC Game Pass team, to the store teams both at Microsoft and Valve, has been nothing short of amazing. I could not be prouder of the World’s Edge team or our partners including Relic Entertainment, Forgotten Empires and Tantalus. I always told myself that I’d leave Microsoft only at a high point, and there has been no higher point than this. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for the support, passion, fun, commitment, feedback and joy you’ve all provided for all of us.”

She said that Michael Mann, World’s Edge executive producer for Age of Empires IV, will step into the role as acting studio head of World’s Edge.

In a statement, Mann said, “It’s been an amazing journey with Shannon, and her departure is a bittersweet one. Shannon, thank you for being a wonderful person and passionate leader, who has pioneered and affected change in the industry throughout her career and shown such tremendous respect for the projects, people, and players for which she has championed.”

He said he would uphold the World’s Edge studio values about inclusion, diversity, cultural representation within the studio and titles, and a dedication to engaging with fans around the globe.

The team is continuing to grow the franchise and planning exciting things for the millions of players around the world, Lofis said. The team is taking feedback and improving the game with patches, bug fixes, and other changes.