IGT hires Microsoft's Chris Satchell as CTO

"Chris brings a long history of success and great depth of technical expertise to IGT," said IGT CEO and President Patti S. Hart. "He will play an instrumental role in shaping our strategic and tactical technological vision and refocusing our internal technology support on many levels within the organization."

The new position will have direct management responsibility for IGT's Information Systems team, research and development, and the advanced software architecture group.

Satchell's 17-year work history in the video game and technology industries is extensive. While at Microsoft, he was general manager and chief software architect of XNA (Microsoft's game development platforms and services), director of engineering for Microsoft Game Studios, and development manager for Studio RX (game titles such as Forza Motorsport, Fable and Crackdown).

Prior to Microsoft, Satchell held positions of executive director and engineering director at the 3DO company and technical director at Silicon Dreams, Ltd. Rounding out his experience are positions in research and development building Distributed Artificial Intelligence Systems and Safety Critical Systems.