Mass Effect project director Casey Hudson has joined Microsoft to work on HoloLens, Xbox games, and “other awesome projects”, Microsoft has announced.

As detailed on Xbox Wire, Hudson’s official title will be creative director at Microsoft Studios, and he’s relocating from Edmonton, Canada to Redmond, Washington for the job.

“Over the course of his 15 years at BioWare/EA, Casey has led the development of several of the industry’s biggest and best titles,” said Microsoft.

“He has brought a natural leadership style to his role at the helm of teams that have included over 200 developers, providing a vision for the creative, technical, and business aspects of some of gaming’s most important franchises.

“Since 2000, Casey has led teams in the development of major ‘event titles’ that went on to achieve both critical and commercial success, giving him one of the most outstanding track records in the history of AAA game development.”

According to Hudson, his primary focus will be as creative director of HoloLens Experiences.

“I am extremely passionate about the potential of this kind of technology, as anyone who’s talked with me over the last couple of years can attest,” he said.

“I feel that the work being done at Microsoft on mixed reality and holographic computing will have a tremendous impact on how all of us interact with technology in the coming years.

“It’s an honour to be able to join such an incredibly talented team, and to work on something that will fundamentally advance the role computers play in our daily lives.”

Hudson will also be working on Xbox games, but it’s clear HoloLens is what he’s most excited about.

“I was fortunate to try an early prototype of HoloLens before it was announced, and I was blown away by the technology and what it was already capable of,” he said.

“Walking on Mars while sipping coffee in an office setting, Skyping with a friend who can draw on the walls of my environment, sculpting an object in 3D modeling software while a hologram of it sits on a table next to me... These first experiences cemented my belief that holographic computing was where I needed to be.

“There’s no end to the potential of this technology, and I look forward to being able to influence the full-spectrum experience on HoloLens, from hardware to OS, to applications and games.”

Hudson left BioWare last August, calling his departure "without a doubt the most difficult decision of my career".