Shannon Loftis is retiring from Microsoft's World's Edge Studio.
Shannon Loftis is retiring from Microsoft's World's Edge Studio.
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Age of Empires studio leader Shannon Loftis retires after 29 years at Microsoft

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 2 min

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.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.