"Father" of Microsoft Games Studio is more than just games
By Laura Garcia Pendergrast
MSFT alum Ed Fries uses entrepreneurial spirit to give back
Ed Fries—known by many as the “father” of Microsoft Games Studios—loves to bring people together. It’s one of the key themes to his life, along with focusing on one’s passions and being patient while nurturing opportunistic ideas.
His latest gathering of people focuses on alumni—former Microsoft employees—who will be celebrating together on November 1. Ed is a co-chair of this “Reunion with a Purpose” event, along with repeating co-chair Charlotte Guyman.
"Ed has such an innate sense of creativity combined with a business sense for effectiveness and the importance of people," said Guyman. "His entrepreneurial passion and ability to connect alumni and big ideas make him a terrific co-chair of this event."
Ed’s interest in computers and games came at an early age. He started in the 1980s on the Atari 800 platform, even developing video games for it. After he joined Microsoft in 1985 as an intern, he spent the next decade as an early developer on Word and Excel, products which eventually became part of the Office suite.
Ed has always had an innate ability to bring groups of people together. One of his favorite memories happened while working on Word and Excel. The “Swing Around the Wing” golf tournament started in Building 3 and organically grew beyond anyone’s expectations. It started as a fun game with a small group of friends on a Friday night in Building 3 and grew to event that Ed managed with tee times for groups of 6-8 people at a time. The “Gumbopolis” trophy – a tribute to Gumby – would get passed along to the winner of the week to add their personal touch to it.
“A lot of crazy things happened over the years that the game lasted, and Mike Maples even played a couple of times when he was part of the office of the President," Fries recalled. "But the best part was that we had people all over the company coming to play in this massive tournament that started out as a little putting practice.”
Gaming was in his blood and he was destined to make a mark in this area while at Microsoft. After leaving the Office team, Ed helped start Microsoft Game Studios. In an eight year period he helped to grow the division from 50 people to over 1,200, published more than 100 games including more than a dozen million+ sellers, co-founded the Xbox project, and made Microsoft one of the leaders in the video game business. Ultimately Ed’s favorite memory during this period (and perhaps during his time at Microsoft) was working with the best game developers to create games people love to play.
One of the many hit products that Ed’s team created was Age of Empires. Fans of the series loved the gameplay and its realistic portrayal of civilizations. Ed has always been an avid history buff and his passion for Egyptology led him to get involved with and join as a board member of AERA (Ancient Egypt Research Associates). AERA works with the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities to survey, map, excavate, and analyze archaeological sites, and its field schools help train the next generation of Egyptian archaeologists at excavations such as the Lost City of Pyramids.
Ever since leaving Microsoft in 2004, Ed still finds ways to follow his passions. As a child, Ed would go to the Pacific Science Center with his parents and has continued his involvement with the Pacific Science Center as a board member. Today, Ed and his family works to support the Science Center; he and his wife were chairs of its recent fundraiser – the Festival of the Fountains. The event, of course, was themed around magic and science.
And Ed was involved with the lecture series with Egyptologists –connecting Dr. Mark Lehner of AERA with Town Hall Seattle and Pacific Science Center to coincide with the King Tut exhibit.
Gaming has been and always will be a central focus for Ed. He is involved as board member, advisor, and consultant to a broad range of publishers, independent game developers, and media companies. Ed is involved on the board of International Game Developers Association, an organization focused on enabling good working environments for game developers around the world. And Ed can often be found in local coffee shops on weekdays meeting with entrepreneurs who are developing games.
Ed approaches new ideas by being patient yet opportunistic at the same time. For example, he had an idea for 3-D color printing that led to developing his company FigurePrints. He spent a couple of years working with different people to create it. Fans of World of Warcraft helped write the code and Ed worked with a colleague on the business model.
Be sure to join Ed and Charlotte for the alumni party of the year—Reunion with a Purpose—on November 1.
Laura is a product marketing professional, freelance writer, and Microsoft alum (1996-2005). She enjoys working with entrepreneurs and nonprofits on creating impactful experiences for their customers. You can find Laura rowing in a boat on Lake Union most mornings or at lauragarciapender@gmail.com.