'They're just staring at the TV, and they're not talking and they're not laughing, and their siblings are sitting right next to them, and it started to feel like this very lonely experience. 'I have nieces and nephews that play 'Halo' a lot,' he said. After launching the first Xbox and 'Halo,' he eventually left to start a series of companies, most of them related to digital gaming.Ī couple years ago, he began feeling bad about it all. Then Microsoft hired Lee to be lead game designer for its then-new Xbox project. 'I feel I spend most of my life apologizing for that,' he said. In college, he managed to land an internship at Industrial Light & Magic, where he worked in computer special effects for 'Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace.' One of his jobs was creating the neck of Jar Jar Binks, the least-likable character in 'Star Wars' history. As a teenager, Lee was published in a scientific journal for accidentally photographing a soundwave. He has a crazy resume: 'I went to seven different colleges because I'm a horrible student.'

Lee loved playing table games growing up, though he and his brothers would always change the rules to make it more fun.