Rare Lead Craig Duncan Will Be New Head of Xbox Game Studios

The head of Xbox Game Studios Alan Hartman retires after 30 years at Microsoft. Following the retirement, Craig Duncan, the head of Rare studio, will be promoted to the post.

In an email to the company's employees (via Verge), President of Game Content and Studios Matt Booty shared that Hartman would leave the post as of November. He worked at Microsoft for three decades, starting at CD-ROM group in 1988 and contributing to titles such as Age of Empires, Brute Force, and Forza Motorsport. "I was able to take a lifelong love of playing games and make it a career. From Age of Empires to Forza Motorsport I’ve been lucky to put my fingerprints across many games through the decades – leading the Forza franchise through all 13 releases and building two fantastic studios along the way," Alan Hartman shared in his LinkedIn post.

Craig Duncan worked at Codemasters, Midway Games, and Sumo Digital before joining Xbox in 2011. During the time Duncan was the lead of Rare, the studio sustained business success and developed the Sea of Thieves franchise, having more than 40 million players.

Duncan will join the Game Content and Studios leadership team and work closely with Alan Hartman during the transition period. The leadership team established by Alan will remain intact and report to Craig Duncan. As for the Rare leadership, Joe Neate and Jim Horth will become its co-leads.

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