GamesIndustry stories Xbox Sport Studios could have a management shakeup with the departure of studio head Alan Hartman. Hartman, who beforehand led Forza developer Flip 10, took on the function final yr, and can retire from the corporate on the finish of November.
Craig Duncan, present chief of Uncommon Ltd, will take over for Hartman. Since being appointed studio head in 2011, Duncan led Uncommon throughout its run of Kinect video games to Killer Intuition and extra not too long ago Sea of Thieves.
Beneath his new function, Duncan will oversee Xbox’s first-party groups, together with The Coalition, Ninja Concept, Halo Studios, and report back to Sport Studios and Content material president Matt Booty.
In a workers e mail, Booty stated Duncan would “proceed to give attention to serving to our studios ship high-quality, differentiated sport experiences that may develop into profitable franchises and attain extra gamers by investing in new IP.”
Booty additional recommended Hartman for his accessibility work and management on the racing franchise, noting he “set a benchmark for the trade, constructing Forza into one of many high racing franchises on the earth, and recurrently pushing the capabilities of our {hardware}.”
At Xbox, leaders go away
With Duncan transitioning over to Xbox, his function at Uncommon will probably be changed by Joe Neate and Jim Horth. Each have been with the studio for at the least a decade (or in Horth’s case, two): Neate is at present the chief producer for Sea of Thieves, and Horth is presently the studio director.
Xbox management has had some noticeable regime adjustments because it acquired Activision Blizzard final yr. Within the quick aftermath, a number of ZeniMax leaders had been correctly built-in into Xbox hierarchy, and longtime Activision CEO Bobby Kotick departed on the finish of the yr.
This previous April, longtime Xbox govt Kareem Choudry departed after a protracted, 26-year tenure. Choudry was a key determine in Mission xCloud, together with a give attention to backward compatibility that outlined that turned a key a part of the Xbox model.
