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The head of Xbox Game Studios will soon be Craig Duncan, currently the studio lead at Rare. He has been working at Rare for almost 14 years at the time of writing and will be filling the shoes of Alan Hartman, who has been the head of Xbox Game Studios since last year. Hartman was working as the team lead at Turn 10, the studio known for the Forza series.
The reason the head of Xbox Game Studios is being changed is because Alan Hartman plans on retiring from his position in Microsoft by the end of November. That is when Craig Duncan will take his place, leaving Rare, where he’s been working since the Kinect era and worked on titles like Sea of Thieves and worked in studios like Sumo Digital, Midway, and Codemasters.
Once Craig Duncan becomes the head of Xbox Games Studios, he will oversee all the major teams like Rare, Obsidian, Ninja Theory, Playground Games, Double Fine, World’s Edge, The Initiative, and even the recently formed Halo Studios.
After Duncan leaves Rare, his vacancy will be covered by Joe Neate and Jim Hoth. Neate joined the company back in 2013 and also worked at Midway and Sumo Digital. Horth has been working in Rare for about 20 years and was the studio director not too long ago.
Matt Booty, the president of Xbox content and studios chimed in on the new appointment with a lot of positivity in his staff email. He said that Alan started off back in 1988 and has worked on some of the most memorable names attached to Xbox. He was the studio head of Digital Anvil, which made games like Brute Force and Freelancer, and the founder of Turn 10, known for Forza.
Once he fills his new role, Craig’s focus will be the same as his predecessor, making high-quality games, growing them into franchises, and making new IPs.
