A few weeks ago, Microsoft made some changes to its executive ranks in its gaming division. One of those changes was that Matt Booty, who previously was the head of Xbox Game Studios, was promoted and received the new title of President: Game Content and Studios at Microsoft.
That promotion put him in charge of all of Microsoft’s first-party game development studios, including those under Bethesda Softworks.
However, that also meant there needed to be a new person named as the head at Xbox Game Studios. This week, it was quietly revealed that person is Alan Hartman, who quietly revealed his own promotion on his LinkedIn page (via Windows Central). Hartman’s post revealing his new duties was short and sweet, stating, “Thrilled to be representing such an elite set of game creators in my new role leading Xbox Game Studios!”
Hartman has been working at Microsoft since 2001, when he was brought in to be the studio manager for the company’s now shut-down game development studio Digital Anvil. In 2005, he was named as the studio head for Microsoft’s Turn 10 Studios, the creators behind the Forza Motorsport racing sim series.
Most recently, Hartman was named as the Corporate Vice President of Forza and Fable in 2021. That put him in charge of both Turn 10 and Playground Games, the makers of the Forza Horizon racing game series as well as that studio’s upcoming reboot of the Fable RPG franchise.
Now Hartman is overseeing many, many more of Microsoft’s game development teams. Xbox Game Studios currently has 13 game studios, along with the World’s Edge group responsible for the Age of Empires series.
Hartman is also now in charge of the Xbox Game Studios Publishing division, which handles games that are developed by third-party studios, including the upcoming Ara: History Untold by Oxide Games, and Towerbourne from Stoic Studio.