REDMOND, Wash. (AP) -- Seamus Blackley, co-creator of Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox, resigned Monday, less than a week after the software giant said sales for the video game system were slower than expected.
Last week, Microsoft said that by the end of June it expects to have shipped 3.5 million to 4 million Xbox consoles worldwide, down from an earlier estimate of 4.5 million to 6 million.
Blackley, who said he and a group of business partners plan to launch a new Seattle-based game-industry startup in two weeks, insisted his resignation was not related to Xbox's sluggish sales.
"There's no good time to resign, but nobody in the industry is surprised by this," Blackley said, echoing company officials who said he had essentially finished the job he set out to do by developing the Xbox hardware.
"I've really poured my entire soul into Xbox," Blackley said. "There's no way I would leave if there was something wrong."
Blackley, 34, declined to discuss any details of his upcoming business venture.
Blackley joined Microsoft in 1998, initially working on Windows, the company's flagship operating system. Then he and a group of colleagues dreamed up Xbox in 1999.
Microsoft launched the game machine in November, touting it as a first step toward a broad vision of an interconnected living room, powered by Microsoft software and hardware ranging from set-top boxes to digital music and video players.
Microsoft chief financial officer John Connors said the company plans to make hefty investments in Xbox over the next year, and thinks it could sell as many as 11 million Xbox consoles by June 2003.
