Bob Feldstein, the man who helped AMD land the next console generation, leaves for rival Nvidia

You’ve probably never heard the name Bob Feldstein, but Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft surely have. He was the vice president of strategic development at AMD, and according to our sources, he brokered the deals that will see the next Xbox, PlayStation, and Wii U all use AMD hardware. He was vice president of engineering at ATI before it got acquired by AMD, and oversaw the Xbox 360’s Xenos GPU and the original Wii’s Hollywood GPU, among other things. Of the previous console generation, only the PS3, with its Nvidia-powered RSX, had a GPU designed by a rival firm.

Why bring that up today? Because after nearly two decades working for Team Red, Feldstein has moved to that rival firm: Nvidia.

The Wall Street Journal reports that July 13th was Feldstein’s last day at the company, he started work at Nvidia on July 16th, and that he left on “amicable terms.” AMD said it was his decision to leave and praised his work. While Nvidia wouldn’t confirm or deny that he was hired to try to take the console gaming market back, a spokesperson told the Journal that he would “help us think through current and possible future technology licensing projects.”

Feldstein was hardly the first high-profile departure from AMD in recent months. The company lost graphics CTO Eric Demers to Qualcomm back in February of this year, and laid off a VP among 1,400 workers in November. SVP Rick Bergman left in September, and former CEO Dirk Meyer resigned last January.