According to a recent report from Games Industry Rare boss Craig Duncan has been promoted to head of Xbox Game Studios. Duncan was the head of Rare for 14 years. According to the report, he will replace Alan Hartman, who will retire from the current position at the end of November after just a year. Duncan worked at Rare overseeing several games including one of its latest games, Sea of Thieves. At Xbox Games Studios, he will oversee several Xbox studios and teams including Rare, Ninja Theory, Obsidian, The Coalition, the recently rebranded Halo Studios, and more.
President of Game Content and Studios, Matt Booty commented on the announcement in a recent email saying:
“Starting as a contractor at Microsoft in the fledgling CD-ROM group in 1988, Alan has worked on a variety of projects in his time here, from Age of Empires, to Brute Force as the studio head of Digital Anvil, to the founding of Turn 10. Over the years, Alan, Turn 10 and Playground Games delivered 13 Forza Motorsport and Forza Horizon games, building Forza into one of the top racing franchises in the world and regularly pushing the capabilities of our hardware. His work to advance accessibility in gaming has set a benchmark for the industry and under his leadership, Xbox Game Studios has shipped multiple critically acclaimed titles this year and set the stage for highly anticipated games like Avowed, South of Midnight, Fable, and more.”
Hartman also commented in a recent LinkedIn post:
“Being a Studio Head in Gaming is one of the most rewarding and challenging roles in entertainment. I believe it is the best job at Microsoft. I always knew we had immense talent across XGS, but I didn’t realize how much I would enjoy spending time with our studio leaders and their teams. It has been an honor to represent XGS, and I truly mean this – a pleasure getting to spend time with all of our studios.
“I am proud of what we have accomplished together and I am excited by what we have in the pipe! Avowed, Clockwork Revolution, Fable, Gears of War E-Day, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, South of Midnight, and many more announced and still to be announced games. I have so much anticipation and confidence in what all of our studios are creating and I am excited by what these teams will accomplish with Craig Duncan as the new Head of Xbox Game Studios.”
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