Since Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, leadership at Xbox Game Studios is still finding its way onto solid ground. In light of this, Alan Hartman has been promoted as the new head of Xbox Game Studios.
Alan is the former Vice President of Turn 10, a studio popularly known for the Forza Motorsport games. Alan announced his new position on LinkedIn. He will now look over 23 development studios under Xbox Game Studios.
Alan Hartman’s Journey with Turn 10 Studios
In the last several years, Xbox has been home to quite a few memorable video game franchises and exclusives. One of which is Forza Motorsport, an industry-standard racing series developed primarily by Turn 10. Ever since its initial days in 2001, the franchise has received consistently positive reviews and something new to look forward to with each game that comes out. Recently, the latest game received a day-one launch on Xbox Game Pass.
Through the LinkedIn post, Alan expressed his excitement over the new role:
Thrilled to be representing such an elite set of game creators in my new role leading Xbox Game Studios!
During his time with Turn 10, Alan saw the launch of several games in the Forza series, including the development of the ForzaTech engine. This engine is shared with Forza Horizon developers in order to craft immaculate racing games exclusive to Xbox Game Studios. Interestingly, the same engine is also being used to develop the upcoming Fable remake.
Given the new collaboration between Microsoft’s resources at Xbox Game Studio and Activision Blizzard, we can only imagine the kind of projects developers and designers can look forward to.
The Shake-up in Leadership at Xbox Game Studios
As of late, the deal between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard has been causing havoc among leadership positions at Xbox Game Studios. It seems that a partnership with new AI tools (such as Inworld AI) is leading up to new development strategies and timelines for projects currently being worked on. This inevitably contributes to the collection of titles at Xbox Game Studios.
Alan’s promotion arrives nearly a month after the massive $69 billion acquisition. Along with him, other leadership changes include Josyln Main as chief of staff at Xbox, Ami Silverman as chief consumer sales officer at Microsoft, and Sarah Bond being promoted to lead Xbox as president. Finally, Bobby Kotick will leave Activision Blizzard eventually, making an impact on how leadership roles and hierarchy see a shift in work ethic and vision at these gigantic organizations.
Recently, Xbox Game Studios saw a new partnership between Microsoft and Inward AI, where they plan on developing and redefining tools like generative AI and Microsoft’s expertise in cloud-based AI solutions.
In a blog post, Haiyan Zhang, the general manager of Gaming AI at Xbox expressed the vision for this collaboration:
At Xbox, we believe that with better tools, creators can make even more extraordinary games. Today, we are announcing a multi-year partnership with Inworld AI, an M12-portfolio company, to build AI game dialogue & narrative tools at scale.
As with all creators’ tools we make at Xbox, our goal is to deliver state-of-the-art AI tools for game developers of any size, anywhere in the world and on every platform where players want to play.
We will collaborate and innovate with game creators inside Xbox studios as well as third-party studios as we develop the tools that meet their needs and inspire new possibilities for future games.
This partnership will hopefully lead to welcome changes and innovations in the game dev scene within Xbox Game Studios, enriched by the new leadership roles and a positive switch in perspective over different projects.
After all, Xbox is now home to a mighty collection of franchises after the successful Activision Blizzard acquisition. Fans can expect titles like Forza, Halo, Gears of War, Call of Duty, Overwatch and more to continue expanding under the vision of Xbox Game Studios moving forward.
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