Matt Booty
Head of Xbox Game Studios
“The best advice I got during my time at Purdue was to find a way so that your work and your hobby can be the same thing. I was fortunate to study both engineering and liberal arts while at Purdue, and both areas of study set me on a path to doing what I love every day. I am grateful that professors I had are still mentors to me several decades later.”
Mr. Matt Booty earned a BS in Computer and Electrical Engineering from Purdue University in 1988. He is a Corporate Vice President at Microsoft and head of Xbox Game Studios, the organization responsible for developing Microsoft games for console, PC and mobile platforms. Booty helped launch the first-party game portfolio on Windows Phone and later led internal game development teams and digital publishing on Xbox Live Arcade.
Booty started his game career in 1991 as an engineer at Midway Games in Chicago and went on to work as a programmer and game designer. While at Midway, he worked alongside the teams making classic games such as Mortal Kombat, NBA Jam, NFL Blitz, and Cruis'n USA, and contributed to some of Midway's 3D graphics efforts in partnership with 3DFX and Nintendo. In 2002, he became the general manager of Midway's Chicago studio. He went on to oversee studios in Seattle, San Diego, Austin, Los Angeles, the United Kingdom and Australia, and became CEO of Midway in 2008.
Booty spends his free time writing software and creating art for personal game projects and is also an avid aviation photographer. He lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife Kristin and son Alexander.