Noah Falstein leaves Google, says he's "not ready to give up making games"

Veteran games developer Noah Falstein has left his role as chief game designer at Google.

In a blog post explaining his decision, Falstein expressed his frustration at not being able to tap into nearly 40 years of experience or take on the type of projects he believed he had been recruited for.

Falstein joined Google four years ago during what "seemed an auspicious time to be able to make games at a company known for its world-spanning technology", he writes.

He continues: "Unfortunately, the opportunity to actually build the big, consequential games that I had been hired to help create failed to materialize, even as the world market for games has continued to grow in size, diversity, and geographic reach."

As such, he has now left Google. He described the firm as "a tremendous company" and said he will miss his colleagues, the perks and the excitement of working for Google - but ultimately he felt his experience was going to waste.

"With 37 years as a professional game developer, making games is in my blood," he says. "I'm not ready to give up on it, certainly not when there are exciting new fields just opening up."

Falstein is particularly keen to explore opportunities for video games in the fields of virtual reality and nueroscience, the latter of which he has previously worked in.

"I don't know what's next, and that's part of what attracts me," he writes. "The only way that I or my long-term colleagues stay fresh in an industry that is constantly changing is to evolve to meet that adapting environment.

"Whether neurogaming, interactive VR films, or some other yet undreamt-of territory will be my next challenge, I'm eager to begin exploring."