Craig Duncan, head of Sea of Thieves studio Uncommon, will take over because the Xbox Sport Studios boss later this 12 months.
In line with GamesIndustry.biz, Xbox Sport Studios’ present boss Alan Hartman will retire from the corporate on the finish of November after being within the place for one 12 months.
Duncan, who had led Uncommon for nearly 14 years, has not solely labored on the favored first-person, live-service pirate sport but additionally the studio’s Kinect titles. He has beforehand labored at a number of studios like Sumo Digital, Halfway, and Codemasters, in numerous management roles over time.
As the brand new head of Xbox Sport Studios, Duncan will oversee Microsoft‘s Xbox groups, together with the lately renamed Halo Studios, The Coalition, Flip 10, Playground Video games, Uncommon, Obsidian, Ninja Concept, Compulsion Video games, The Initiative, Double Superb, InXile, Undead Labs, World’s Edge and extra.
In his new place, Duncan will report back to the president of Sport Content material and Studios, Matt Booty.
Sea of Thieves government undertaking, Joe Neate, and Uncommon studio director, Jim Horth, will substitute Duncan at Uncommon following his departure.
Neate joined the Uncommon in 2013 after additionally working at Sumo Digital and Halfway, whereas Horth has labored in a number of positions on the studio for over 20 years.
“Alan’s profession has been marked by innovation, dedication, and an unwavering ardour for gaming,” Booty stated in an e-mail to workers.
“Beginning as a contractor at Microsoft within the fledgling CD-ROM group in 1988, Alan has labored on quite a lot of initiatives 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.
“Through the years, Alan, Flip 10 and Playground Video games delivered 13 Forza Motorsport and Forza Horizon video games, constructing Forza into one of many high racing franchises on this planet and often pushing the capabilities of our {hardware}.
“His work to advance accessibility in gaming has set a benchmark for the trade and below 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.”
Hartman additionally shared an announcement on his LinkedIn, saying, “Being a Studio Head in Gaming is among the most rewarding and difficult roles in leisure. I imagine it’s the greatest job at Microsoft. I at all times knew we had immense expertise throughout XGS, however I didn’t understand how a lot I’d get pleasure from spending time with our studio leaders and their groups.
“It has been an honor to signify XGS, and I really imply this – a pleasure attending to spend time with all of our studios.”
Speaking about Duncan’s new place as head, Booty added, “In his new position, Craig will proceed to deal with 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.”
