Stephen Toulouse, Xbox Live's Director of Policy & Enforcement, has taken to his personal blog to announce his departure from Microsoft after 17 years. Toulouse joined Microsoft in 1994 as a product support specialist before progressing to Communications Manager for Microsoft's Security Response Team in 2002. In 2007 he took on his current role, where he's been a source of information and entertainment (frequently appearing on the Major Nelson podcast) as well as an active player, building up a Gamerscore of over 135,000 along the way.

Toulouse says that the move's prompted by a mixture of feeling "strangely comfortable, and strangely too tied," having spent almost all of his adult life with the company. He currently has no plans for the future beyond a vacation, but will continue to tweet and write on the topic of video games wherever he can. Although his announcement came just before the weekend, his last day will fall on February 15th.