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Microsoft game platform director scooped up by Amazon

Microsoft director of game platform strategy Andre "Ozymandias" Vrignaud is departing from his position after eight years on the job, apparently taking up a new position at Amazon. In a post on his personal blog announcing the career change, Vrignaud says he "can't really talk about details at this point," but adds that "it'll become pretty evident soon enough ... and you all know where my passions lie." Considering Vrignaud's recent work on bringing Xbox Live to Windows Phone 7 and given the news earlier this year of an as-yet-opened app store for the Kindle, we're betting his talents are being applied to gaming on the Kindle.

Vrignaud also lamented leaving the Xbox Live platform team, noting the "thousands of times when I've watched or engaged in a passionate debate in a conference room about some arcane subject where the platform teams (who are all also gamers) fought hard to do the right thing for the consumer." Regardless, with Amazon's promise of a Kindle app store launching before year's end, it'll likely be sooner than later that we hear more about what Vrignaud is up to.