Jon Kimmich was a Lead Product Planner for

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

Games Studios during pivotal parts of the

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand that consists of four main home video game console lines, as well as application software, applications (games), the streaming media, streaming service Xbox Cloud Gaming, and online services such as the Xbox networ ...

conception, launch and lifespan. Jon was instrumental in the acquisition of many titles for Microsoft Games Studios publishing for both the PC and

platforms. Together with Ed Fries and Stuart Moulder, Jon was responsible for the acquisition of

Bungie Bungie, Inc. is an American video game company based in Bellevue, Washington, and a subsidiary of Sony Interactive Entertainment. The company was established in May 1991 by Alex Seropian, who later brought in programmer Jason Jones (programme ...

FASA Interactive FASA Studio (formerly FASA Interactive Technologies Inc.) was an American video game developer that was founded in 1994 in Chicago, Illinois by the tabletop game company FASA Corporation. FASA is an acronym for "Freedonian Aeronautics and Space ...

, and

Digital Anvil Digital Anvil, Inc. (formerly Digital Anvil Holdings, Inc.) was an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas owned by Microsoft Game Studios (MGS). It was founded in 1996 by brothers Chris and Erin Roberts along with Tony Zurovec, Ma ...

. In addition to acquisitions, Jon secured publishing rights for Microsoft for externally developed games such as

Dungeon Siege ''Dungeon Siege'' is an action role-playing game developed by Gas Powered Games and published by Microsoft in April 2002 for Microsoft Windows and the following year by Destineer for Mac OS X. Set in the pseudo-medieval kingdom of Ehb, the high ...

Gas Powered Games Wargaming Seattle, formerly known as Gas Powered Games, was a video game developer located in Redmond, Washington. The development studio was started in May 1998 by Chris Taylor (game designer), Chris Taylor and several other ex-Cavedog Entertain ...

Rise of Nations ''Rise of Nations'' is a real-time strategy video game developed by Big Huge Games and published by Xbox Game Studios, Microsoft Game Studios in May 2003. Designed as a fusion of concepts from turn-based strategy games with the real-time strat ...

from

Big Huge Games Big Huge Games, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Timonium, Maryland since 2000, known first for real-time strategy games such as ''Rise of Nations'', later for the console RPG '' Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning'', and more recen ...

, and

MechAssault ''MechAssault'' is a 2002 video game released for the Xbox. Developed by Day 1 Studios and FASA Studio and published by Microsoft, ''MechAssault'' was initiated when Denny Thorley of Day 1 Studios approached Jon Kimmich of Microsoft about devel ...

Day 1 Studios Wargaming Chicago-Baltimore (formerly Meyer/Glass Interactive, L.L.C., Day 1 Studios, LLC and Wargaming West Corporation) is an American game developer that operates in Chicago, Illinois and Hunt Valley, Maryland. History They worked in tandem ...

as well as many internally developed games such as

Crimson Skies ''Crimson Skies'' is a tabletop and a video game media franchise created by Jordan Weisman and Dave McCoy, first released as a board game in 1998 and then as a PC game in 2000. The series' intellectual property is currently owned by Microsoft C ...

, MechWarrior 4: Vengeance, Brute Force and

Halo HALO, halo, halos or haloes may refer to: Most common meanings * Halo (optical phenomenon) * Halo (religious iconography), a ring of light around the image of a head * ''Halo'' (franchise), a sci-fi video game series (2001–2021) Arts and en ...

. According to The Xbox 360 Uncloaked by Dean Takahashi Jon Kimmich also negotiated deals for Epic's

Gears of War ''Gears of War'' (also referred to as ''Gears'') is a media franchise centered on a series of video games created by Epic Games, developed and managed by The Coalition (company), The Coalition, and owned and published by Xbox Game Studios. The ...

and a new Valve game for the Xbox 360, of which only Gears of War was signed by MGS. Before joining Microsoft Games Studios, Kimmich held other positions at Microsoft, which included development manager for a new product development group in Microsoft's Hardware Team, responsible for hardware devices such as the original award-winning Microsoft Natural keyboard. The addition of the

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

-key and application-key, which first appeared on the Microsoft Natural Keyboard in 1994 (and are now standard on most keyboards and laptops designed to support Windows) has been attributed to Jon. In June 2004, Jon Kimmich left Microsoft to become Producer and Director of Business Development for Day 1 Studios. Since this time, Day 1 Studios has developed MechAssault 2,

F.E.A.R. ''F.E.A.R.'' is a first-person shooter Horror game#Psychological horror, psychological horror video game series created by Craig Hubbard in 2005. Released on Microsoft Windows, Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360, there are three main games i ...

for the

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the Xbox (console), original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detail ...

and

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE). It is the successor to the PlayStation 2, and both are part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. The PS3 was first released on ...

, and

Fracture Fracture is the appearance of a crack or complete separation of an object or material into two or more pieces under the action of stress (mechanics), stress. The fracture of a solid usually occurs due to the development of certain displacemen ...

. In 2012, he was a contributor to and editor for The Crowdfunding Bible along with Rusel DeMaria and Scott Steinberg. The Crowdfunding Bible examines how successful funding campaigns can be developed for a variety of consumer product categories including games, gadgets, films and books on sites such as

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

IndieGoGo Indiegogo is an American crowdfunding website founded in 2008 by Danae Ringelmann, Slava Rubin, and Eric Schell. Its headquarters are in San Francisco, California. The site is one of the first sites to offer crowd funding. Indiegogo allows peo ...

and

RocketHub RocketHub was an online crowdfunding platform launched in 2010, its first use was September 1, 2009. Based in New York City, its users included musicians, entrepreneurs, scientists, game developers, philanthropists, filmmakers, photographers,Haine ...

. It includes interviews with the creators of the TikTok LunaTik Watch, The Pebble E-Paper Watch, Shadowrun Returns, Wasteland 2, Designing Obama and others. Jon Kimmich was also an investor in

WizKids NECA/WizKids, LLC (commonly known as simply WizKids) is an American company based in New Jersey that produces tabletop games. WizKids is best known for its collectible miniatures games (CMGs) Mage Knight, HeroClix, MechWarrior, and HorrorCli ...

, LLC, a game company founded by

Jordan Weisman Jordan Weisman is an American game designer, author, and serial entrepreneur who has founded five game design companies, each in a different game genre and segment of the industry. Biography Weisman graduated from Francis W. Parker High School, ...

(founder of FASA Interactive) in 2000 to develop and sell a line of collectible miniatures.

References

External links

MobyGames rap sheet for Jon
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Interview with Jon from GamesIndustry.bizInterview with Jon from TeamXboxInterview on Yahoo News about Windows Keyboard and gamesThe Crowdfunding Bible
Microsoft employees People in the video game industry Living people Year of birth missing (living people) {{videogame-bio-stub