Rare alum Craig Duncan appointed Xbox Game Studios head

GamesIndustry reports Xbox Game Studios will have a leadership shakeup with the departure of studio head Alan Hartman. Hartman, who previously led Forza developer Turn 10, took on the role last year, and will retire from the company at the end of November.

Craig Duncan, current leader of Rare Ltd, will take over for Hartman. Since being appointed studio head in 2011, Duncan led Rare during its run of Kinect games to Killer Instinct and more recently Sea of Thieves.

Under his new role, Duncan will oversee Xbox's first-party teams, including The Coalition, Ninja Theory, Halo Studios, and report to Game Studios and Content president Matt Booty.

In a staff email, Booty said Duncan would "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."

Booty further commended Hartman for his accessibility work and leadership on the racing franchise, noting he "set a benchmark for the industry, building Forza into one of the top racing franchises in the world, and regularly pushing the capabilities of our hardware."

At Xbox, leaders leave

With Duncan transitioning over to Xbox, his role at Rare will be replaced by Joe Neate and Jim Horth. Both have been with the studio for at least a decade (or in Horth's case, two): Neate is currently the executive producer for Sea of Thieves, and Horth is presently the studio director.

Xbox leadership has had some noticeable regime changes since it acquired Activision Blizzard last year. In the immediate aftermath, several ZeniMax leaders were properly integrated into Xbox hierarchy, and longtime Activision CEO Bobby Kotick departed at the end of the year.

This past April, longtime Xbox executive Kareem Choudry departed after a long, 26-year tenure. Choudry was a key figure in Project xCloud, along with a focus on backward compatibility that defined that became a key part of the Xbox brand.