Craig Duncan, the head of Microsoft studio Rare, will become the new head of Xbox Game Studios as current boss Alan Hartman retires.
Duncan has been studio head at Rare since 2011, overseeing the likes of Sea of Thieves and multiple Kinect games.
Hartman, meanwhile, became head of Xbox Game Studios last year following almost 17 years as studio head at Forza developer Turn 10 and a further two years as corporate vice president of Forza and Fable at Microsoft.
As head of Xbox Game Studios, Duncan will oversee projects from the likes of Rare and Turn 10, as well as Playground Games, Ninja Theory, The Initiative, the newly named Halo Studios, and more.
Back at Rare, Duncan will be replaced by Joe Neate and Jim Horth. Neate has led Sea of Thieves as executive producer, while Horth has worked at Rare for over 20 years – most recently as studio director.
“Alan’s career has been marked by innovation, dedication, and an unwavering passion for gaming,” wrote Xbox president of game content and studios Matt Booty in an email to staff (thanks GI.Biz).
“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.”
On Duncan’s position, he wrote: “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.”
Rare has been working on its next project, Everwild, for quite some time now, which was pencilled in for a 2024 release back in 2021. That now seems unlikely.
Meanwhile, Sea of Thieves was released on PS5 earlier this year and quickly hit 1m copies sold.