With former head of Xbox Game Studios, Alan Hartman, retiring at the end of November, a new head is already in line to take up the mantle as Craig Duncan, former head of Rare Studios, has been slotted as the new head of Xbox Game Studios.
Alan Hartman is best known for forming the Forza franchise under Turn 10 back in 2005 and stepped into the role of head of Xbox Game Studios last year. He also worked on other major Microsoft franchises like Age of Empires and Fable throughout his 36 year career.
In the new role is Craig Duncan, who led Rare for 14 years and oversaw the Kinetic projects and the launch of Sea of Thieves online which has reached over 40 million players since its release in 2018. Before working for Rare, Duncan was a development head of Sumo Digital, Midway, Codemasters, and is the VP of a charity called SpecialEffect. The new job for Duncan will have him overseeing Xbox teams that include 343 Industries, Turn 10, Rare, The Coalition, Playground Games, Undead Labs, and more.
According to GameIndustry, he President of game content at Xbox wrote an email to staff that stated:
“Alan’s career has been marked by innovation, dedication, and an unwavering passion for gaming…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.”
In his new role, Craig will continue to focus on helping our studios deliver high-quality, differentiated game experiences that can grow into successful franchises and reach more players by investing in new IP.
Taking over at Rare for Duncan will be Joe Neate and Jim Horth. Neate joined Rare in 2013 and was an executive producer on Sea of Thieves, while North has been with Rare for 20 years and has had namely as the studio director.