[VGC]Former Forza boss Alan Hartman has been appointed head of Xbox Game Studios

anonpuffs

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Former Forza boss Alan Hartman has been appointed head of Xbox Game Studios​

He takes on the role previously held by Matt Booty


Former Forza boss Alan Hartman has been appointed head of Xbox Game Studios


Microsoft has appointed former Turn 10 boss Alan Hartman as its new head of Xbox Game Studios.
Hartman, who joined the Forza Motorsport developer back in 2005, had spent the last two years working as corporate vice president of Forza and Fable.
“Thrilled to be representing such an elite set of game creators in my new role leading Xbox Game Studios!” he wrote on LinkedIn.
Hartman’s promotion follows several recently announced Xbox leadership changes.
He is taking on the role previously held by Matt Booty, who has been promoted to president of game content and studios, a role which incorporates overseeing the work of ZeniMax and Bethesda.
Sarah Bond was also promoted from corporate vice president at Xbox to Xbox president. In her new role, she has taken over the running of the division’s hardware and software platforms.
The leadership changes also coincide with Microsoft finally completing its $69 million acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
Earlier this week, Xbox announced a multi-year deal with Inworld to build AI dialogue and narrative tools at scale.
Haiyan Zhang, Xbox’s general manager of gaming AI, said the goal of the partnership is to create new state-of-the-art tools for multiplatform developers of all sizes.

Maybe they can actually get some product management going on now, still don't know how Phil nor Matt Booty are fired yet.
 
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AllBizness

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All that guy did was attempt to copy Gran Turismo with Forza Motorsport and fell flat on his face and now they promote him to head of Microsoft Game Studios? Lol I guess he's going to attempt to copy all of PlayStation now and fail miserably in the process. Microsoft the exec's fail upwards shit is crazy
 

Vertigo

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Forza is number 23 on XBL. For a month old tentpole release from one their major IPs. Well, that’s not good.
 

KiryuRealty

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Where it’s at.
All that guy did was attempt to copy Gran Turismo with Forza Motorsport and fell flat on his face and now they promote him to head of Microsoft Game Studios? Lol I guess he's going to attempt to copy all of PlayStation now and fail miserably in the process. Microsoft the exec's fail upwards shit is crazy
No, he made Forza Horizon, where you drive on Bing Maps scans, not racetracks. He's also the guy who is trying to get an exclusive racing developer to make an action-RPG that is mired in development hell.

The bigger news is that Matt Booty, whose track record speaks for itself, is now the man in charge of ALL MS-owned game developers. That's a surefire recipe for a perfect 2027!
 
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anonpuffs

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No, he made Forza Horizon, where you drive on Bing Maps scans, not racetracks. He's also the guy who is trying to get an exclusive racing developer to make an action-RPG that is mired in development hell.

The bigger news is that Matt Booty, whose track record speaks for itself, is now the man in charge of ALL MS-owned game developers. That's a surefire recipe for a perfect 2027!
Isn't he just in charge of zenimax and bethesda?
 
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No, he made Forza Horizon, where you drive on Bing Maps scans, not racetracks. He's also the guy who is trying to get an exclusive racing developer to make an action-RPG that is mired in development hell.

The bigger news is that Matt Booty, whose track record speaks for itself, is now the man in charge of ALL MS-owned game developers. That's a surefire recipe for a perfect 2027!
Forza horizon was pitched by playground games to Microsoft they wanted to make a racing game like test drive unlimited & called it Forza horizon
 
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anonpuffs

anonpuffs

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Zenimax, Bethesda and all the other studios MS already owns, according to the article.
"The Xbox changes mean Booty will now lead an expanded organization inside Microsoft Gaming that now includes ZeniMax and Bethesda. “ZeniMax will continue to operate as a limited integration entity led by Jamie Leder, President and CEO, reporting to Matt,” explains Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer in an internal memo obtained by The Verge.
Booty’s expanded role should help Microsoft Gaming avoid scenarios like Redfall in the future, with Microsoft clearly focusing on better collaboration between the teams it acquired with the ZeniMax / Bethesda acquisition."

It sounds like they created a position for him to just fuck off and get out of the way so he can stop fucking things up for everyone else.
 

historia

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Hmm I never heard of Forza before, now I knew why.

Even back in their peak Forza sells less than 2 million while GT5 sold 4 million.... for a glorified full price demo. Full-ledged GT5 sols 11