Rare Boss Craig Duncan Promoted to Head of Xbox Game Studios - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 14 October 2024 / 1,598 Views
Rare boss Craig Duncan has been promoted to the head of Xbox Game Studios, according to GamesIndustry. Duncan is replacing Alan Hartman, who is retiring from the company in November.
Hartman led the team at Turn 10 Studios and the Forza franchise since 2015 and took over as the head of Xbox Game Studios last year.
Duncan has led Rare for 14 years as he oversaw the development of Sea of Thieves and multiple Kinect titles. Before Rare, he had multiple leadership roles at Sumo Digital, Midway and Codemasters.
His new role as the head of Xbox Game Studios will have him oversee over a dozen studios including The Coalition, Compulsion Games, Double Fine, The Initiative, inXile Entertainment, Halo Studios, Mojang, Ninja Theory, Obsidian Entertainment, Playground Games, Rare, Turn 10 Studios, Undead Labs, World's Edge, and Xbox Game Studios Publishing.
Joe Neate and Jim Horth will be replacing Duncan at Rare. Neate has been working at Rare since 2013 and was an executive producer on Sea of Thieves. Horth has been working at Rare for over 20 years and most recently was a studio director.
"Alan's career has been marked by innovation, dedication, and an unwavering passion for gaming," said president of Game Content and Studios at Xbox Matt Booty.
"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."
He added, "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."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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