5/7/2018

It’s time for some bittersweet news. I’d like to let everyone know—with the acknowledgement that I have not quite processed it yet myself—that this will be my last week working at Harmonix. Over the past couple of years it has become increasingly clear that Boston is no longer the right home for my family, and as my son starts to grow up (and as I’ve gotten older), we’ve decided that it’s the right time for us make a change, and make a move. So here we are.

It’s hard to convey in words how much Harmonix means to me, and how much my coworkers past and present have meant to me over the last decade. The mission of the studio is one that has always resonated strongly with me; bringing the joy of making music to the world at large is something to be proud of, and I couldn’t be more proud of the work we did in developing Rock Band, Fantasia, DropMix, and so many more. Truly this place has shaped me and my character as much as anything else in my life.

I owe an eternal thanks to Eran for hiring a 19 year-old intern who quite obviously had no clue what he was doing. Thanks to Seth for being an amazing manager during a period of my career where I needed the most encouragement. Thanks to Mike and Steve for the chance to tackle the CTO role over the last few years. It’s not lost on me that I’m the product of the opportunities I’ve been given, and Harmonix has been nothing if not full of them.

Thanks to the innumerable engineers who took the time to explain to me things that I didn’t understand, and to every coworker who trusted me and had faith in me. Thanks to Ryan, Eric, Doug, and Rubix for getting lunch with me almost every day and somehow not getting tired of me, and to Geoff, Brakeley, and Eskew for letting me join their band and tolerating my mediocre guitar-playing. I’ll miss everyone.

The future is exciting, but change is hard. I can at least leave knowing that Harmonix is in an awesome place, with multiple amazing projects in development, though I’m disappointed to not be able to see them through. The caliber of talent in this office can’t be overstated, and the creativity and drive that talent brings is incalculable. Music games are only getting better.

— Fitzy