Xbox Leadership Reorg Puts Booty In Charge Of Bethesda, Zenimax, Arkane, And More
Look, if a massive corporate merger is going to monopolize and ruin games, at least it’s going to be funny while it happens.
Microsoft is shaking up the leadership at Xbox, including stepping back from its hands-off approach to Fallout and Skyrim developers, Bethesda and others. In a memo obtained by The Verge, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer announced an expanded organization headed up by Matt Booty.
That’s right. Booty will run an “expanded gaming content organization” which places Booty as the ultimate authority over studios like ZeniMax and the many studios under its umbrella. A move that comes not long after Microsoft finished its acquisition of Activision-Blizzard, meaning that now studios like Bethesda, id Software, Arkane, and more will be ultimately reporting to Microsoft leaders. They all report to ZeniMax, and ZeniMax reports to Booty.
Booty Overseeing Game Content And Studios
via Microsoft
Microsoft Gaming is on a multi-year journey to reach players where they are, on the devices they choose to play, and our strategy is working. We have thirteen $1B+ franchises in our portfolio and we just set new records for engagement in Game Pass. As our business continues to grow, it’s important that we structure ourselves to sustain that momentum with effective clarity and accountability across Gaming. In that spirit, we are making the following organizational changes effective today:
Great games are fundamental to everything we do. We believe that an expanded gaming content organization—one that enables Xbox Game Studios and ZeniMax’s development studios to collaborate effectively together—will empower those world-class studios to do their best work in growing our portfolio of games players love. Matt Booty will lead this expanded organization as President, Game Content and Studios.
ZeniMax will continue to operate as a limited integration entity led by Jamie Leder, President and CEO, reporting to Matt. All ZeniMax development studios and ZeniMax Central Services teams will continue reporting to Jamie to maintain and optimize current content development and production cycles. Also, to deepen our partnership and accelerate mutual learning, a number of ZeniMax leaders will now report to those Microsoft leaders with whom their work most closely aligns.
And of course, leaders at Microsoft are ultimately responsible to their shareholders. Capitalism wins again. Now, the fallout of this, will be years in the unfolding, surely. But Microsoft does pledge to focus on Xbox as the “primary way [they] connect games and their creators with players around the world.” Sorry PC folks, it looks like the console-ation prize is yours this time.
You can read the full memo at the Verge to see what other fresh hells await the games industry in the not too distant future.
