Shannon Loftis

Shannon Loftis is the General Manager for Microsoft Studios Games First Party publishing. She is responsible for a portfolio of games, working with independent AAA game developers all over the world to build new content for Windows and Xbox.

Shannon has been a games industry enthusiast since 1995. She has built and supported over 40 games in production and management, including the entire Madness series, Project Gotham Racing, the Fable series, and even the Microsoft Solitaire Collection (part of the world-famous Microsoft Casual Suite). In 2010, Shannon’s team led game development for the full-body motion-sensing Kinect, launching an industry-wide focus on natural user interface that today informs development in areas as varied as voice recognition and mixed-reality gaming. Throughout her career, Shannon’s focus has been on broadening both the games industry and its offerings, and making video games a pastime that welcomes and benefits all.

In 1999, Shannon co-founded the Women in Games initiative with Bonnie Ross and Laura Fryer. Over the years, this initiative has grown from a relatively small luncheon to a major, cross-industry initiative providing scholarships, donations, and networking opportunities for thousands of women throughout the year. WIG has also given birth to a broader Games for Everyone initiative within Microsoft which boasts fulltime staff and funding and this year, brought more than 1000 under-represented voices together at the Game Developer Conference in February.

Shannon is also a board member of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences.