Minecraft studios boss Matt Booty has been promoted to Corporate Vice President overseeing Microsoft Studios, where he’ll report directly to Phil Spencer regarding the ongoing development and production of the company’s Xbox and PC titles. Microsoft Studios is the company’s in-house development wing, responsible for titles like Crackdown and Gears of War. Booty’s new position at Microsoft has been vacant since March 2014, when Phil Spencer was promoted out of the role to lead the entire Xbox division. Since then, Spencer has carried on his prior responsibilities, with each of Microsoft’s studio heads reporting directly to him. Recent decisions have led Spencer to bring the position back, as Microsoft plans to expand its game development investment. Phil Spencer talked to Venture Beat about why, after three and a half years of filling in the role himself, he’s now decided to promote Matt Booty: “[It’s] become very clear to me … [Read more...] about Minecraft Boss Promoted to Lead Microsoft’s Game Studios
Minecraft
Minecraft chief Matt Booty taking charge of Xbox game dev and publishing
Minecraft team leader Matt Booty has been named as the new head of Microsoft Studios, and will fill the gap left by the recently promoted Phil Spencer. As reported by GamesBeat, Booty will now oversee the overall development and publishing strategy at Microsoft, making the company more agile in the ever-fluctuating world of games. It means that Spencer, who was promoted to executive vice president of Microsoft last August, will be in charge of the overall grand strategy for games, and that Booty will be tasked with executing those strategies. The change in hierarchy will see Booty report to Spencer, with the rest of the studio chiefs reporting to Booty. "I wanted to make sure we had the right organization in place to deliver on our content goals," explained Spencer," speaking to GamesBeat. "With that, I made the decision that I wanted to anoint a leader of our Microsoft Studios organization, which if you’ve tracked it, I’ve had the leaders of our … [Read more...] about Minecraft chief Matt Booty taking charge of Xbox game dev and publishing
Minecraft boss to oversee first and third-party development and publishing for Xbox
Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, has promoted Minecraft boss Matt Booty to the role of corporate vice president of Microsoft Studios. Booty has been the head of the Minecraft group, and will now replace Spencer in his previous role. Phil Spencer was promoted last year by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to vice president, and has since been juggling both roles. Matt Booty is now responsible for Xbox’s first and third-party development. Spencer oversees the entire Xbox division, including games, hardware, and Booty will be reporting to him. Basically, Spencer will set the overall strategy for Xbox while Booty will be the one to execute in games publishing for Xbox as well as PC. Leads for other franchises will now report to him. “I wanted to make sure we had the right organisation in place to deliver on our content goals,” Spencer told GamesBeat. “With that, I made the decision that I wanted to anoint a leader of our Microsoft Studios organization, which if you’ve … [Read more...] about Minecraft boss to oversee first and third-party development and publishing for Xbox
Xbox chief Phil Spencer promotes Minecraft manager to run studio network
Microsoft’s games chief Phil Spencer has reorganized his studio structure, appointing Matt Booty as corporate vice president of Microsoft Studios, according to a report in GamesBeat. Booty will take over Spencer’s previous role of managing Microsoft’s network of games studios, including Turn 10 (Forza series), 343 Studios (Halo), Mojang (Minecraft), The Coalition (Gears of War) and Rare (Sea of Thieves). A former boss at Midway’s U.S operation, Moody’s previous role at Microsoft was running Mojang. Freed from the detail of studio management, Spencer will focus more on big picture strategy. Late last year, he was promoted to executive vice president, with complete oversight over the company’s gaming operations. “It’s become very clear to me that we’re going to invest more in content,” said Spencer, in an interview with GamesBeat. “A unified studios leadership organization is critical to our long-term success.” … [Read more...] about Xbox chief Phil Spencer promotes Minecraft manager to run studio network
Notch Could be Working on a Minecraft Successor
Markus "Notch" Persson could be working on a successor to Minecraft, with him recently revealing a series of images and videos from a new project with a similarly eye-catching design. Notch is most famous for developing Minecraft before he handed over its Microsoft, with him selling both the sandbox game and his studio Mojang for an estimated $2 billion. Since then, Notch has mostly stayed away from game development, though he recently uploaded a slew of screenshots and videos for his new project "Voxels_WebGL2." Notch has noted that the project is "definitely not a sequel to anything," but if this project does become something more substantial then it will be the first proper game he's released since Minecraft. The project is in the very early stages of development, with Notch adding that he's "just having way, waaay too much fun seeing how far I can push this tomfoolery." On top of various screenshots of the project's various structures and its sprawling, mountainous … [Read more...] about Notch Could be Working on a Minecraft Successor