The present head of Xbox Sport Studios, Alan Hartman, is to retire on the finish of November, with Uncommon studio boss Craig Duncan taking on (thanks, GI.biz). Hartman’s been at Xbox for a very long time, with a listing of credit throughout every thing from Age of Empires to Forza, although has solely been within the head honcho function for a 12 months.
“Alan’s profession has been marked by innovation, dedication, and an unwavering ardour for gaming,” says Microsoft’s Matt Booty. “Beginning as a contractor at Microsoft within the fledgling CD-ROM group in 1988, Alan has labored on quite a lot of tasks in his time right here, from Age of Empires, to Brute Drive because the studio head of Digital Anvil, to the founding of Flip 10 […] His work to advance accessibility in gaming has set a benchmark for the business and underneath his management, Xbox Sport Studios has shipped a number of critically acclaimed titles this 12 months and set the stage for extremely anticipated video games like Avowed, South of Midnight, Fable, and extra.”
As for his substitute, Craig Duncan’s been with Uncommon 14 years, during which time the studio did loads of work for Microsoft’s ill-fated Kinect peripheral, however most notably guided the launch and subsequent help for Sea of Thieves. This recreation is internally considered one of many nice Sport Move drivers for Microsoft, often on the high of the most-played video games inside that ecosystem, and has continued to evolve with and delight its sizeable participant base.
So little question the bean-counters in Redmond are hoping Duncan can shake a few of that piratical stardust over different elements of their lineup. Duncan will quickly be in control of a dizzying lineup of studios, filled with expertise, extremely well-resourced, and but… and but, I do not assume it is unfair to say Microsoft Sport Studios has not been firing on all cylinders over latest years. It appears like for each hit there’s a couple of misfires, and just a few weeks in the past its flagship Halo studio, 343 Industries, introduced a rebrand and a change of route.
Getting one thing nice out of the newly minted Halo Studios can be one in all Duncan’s largest jobs, however there’s additionally Playground Video games (please let the Fable reboot be good), The Initiative (the great-looking Good Darkish), Flip 10 (Forza), Obsidian (Avowed), Ninja Concept (Hellblade), and others together with The Coalition, Compulsion Video games, Double Positive, inXile, and lots of many extra.
Joe Neate and Jim Horth can be stepping as much as share Duncan’s outdated function at Uncommon. Neate’s an govt producer on Sea of Thieves who’s been at Uncommon for over a decade, whereas Horth has been there for over twenty years and held many roles, most not too long ago being studio director.
“In his new function, Craig will proceed to deal with serving to our studios ship high-quality, differentiated recreation experiences that may develop into profitable franchises and attain extra gamers by investing in new IP,” says Booty.
