GamesIndustry stories Xbox Sport Studios can have a management shakeup with the departure of studio head Alan Hartman. Hartman, who beforehand led Forza developer Flip 10, took on the function final yr, and can retire from the corporate on the finish of November.Craig Duncan, present chief of Uncommon Ltd, will take over for Hartman. Since being appointed studio head in 2011, Duncan led Uncommon throughout its run of Kinect video games to Killer Intuition and extra lately Sea of Thieves.Underneath his new function, Duncan will oversee Xbox’s first-party groups, together with The Coalition, Ninja Principle, Halo Studios, and report back to Sport Studios and Content material president Matt Booty.In a workers e-mail, Booty mentioned Duncan would “proceed to concentrate on 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.”Booty additional counseled Hartman for his accessibility work and management on the racing franchise, noting he “set a benchmark for the business, constructing Forza into one of many prime racing franchises on this planet, and repeatedly pushing the capabilities of our {hardware}.”At Xbox, leaders leaveWith Duncan transitioning over to Xbox, his function at Uncommon might be changed by Joe Neate and Jim Horth. Each have been with the studio for not less than a decade (or in Horth’s case, two): Neate is at present the chief producer for Sea of Thieves, and Horth is presently the studio director.Xbox management has had some noticeable regime modifications because it acquired Activision Blizzard final yr. Within the speedy aftermath, a number of ZeniMax leaders have been correctly built-in into Xbox hierarchy, and longtime Activision CEO Bobby Kotick departed on the finish of the yr.This previous April, longtime Xbox govt Kareem Choudry departed after an extended, 26-year tenure. Choudry was a key determine in Undertaking xCloud, together with a concentrate on backward compatibility that outlined that turned a key a part of the Xbox model.