Intel's "architecture day" took place at the home of Intel cofounder Bob Noyce.

Why longtime Xbox chip architect John Sell moved to Intel

Intel announced last week that it hired John Sell, the chief architect of next-generation console chips at Microsoft. Sell worked on the chips for the Xbox One, Xbox One X, and the upcoming Project Scarlett.

I’ve interviewed Sell over the years on the different projects he has worked on throughout his career, ranging from Microsoft’s game consoles to its Kinect motion-sensing camera.

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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.