Craig Duncan is leaving Xbox Game Studios this week after just 20 months in the role, and chief of staff Louise O'Connor is departing alongside him, according to an internal email. The dual exits leave Matt Booty, the company's chief content officer, temporarily overseeing all first-party studios.
He replaced Alan Hartman in November 2024, inheriting a portfolio that spans Halo Studios, The Coalition, Playground Games, Obsidian, Ninja Theory, Rare, Double Fine, InXile, Undead Labs, and others. The tenure was brief enough that Xbox is now searching for its third head of first-party studios in under three years. The 14 studios under Duncan will report directly to Booty until a permanent replacement is named, giving Booty, who already manages content strategy and third-party partnerships, direct control over the entire internal development pipeline.
Duncan spent nearly 14 years running Rare before taking the top XGS job. He led the studio through the Kinect era and the Sea of Thieves live-service transformation. Prior to Microsoft, he held senior roles at Codemasters, Midway, and Sumo Digital.
O'Connor's departure closes a 27-year run at the company. She joined the UK studio in 1999 as an animator on Conker's Bad Fur Day, later winning an AIAS award for voicing Leafos in Viva Piñata. She left after the cancellation of Everwild in 2025 and became Xbox chief of staff that September.
"Together we set out to deliver high-quality games, strengthen the cultural fabric across our studios, and help shape the future of the business," Duncan wrote in his staff email. "I'm proud to say we delivered many flawless launches that drove business success for the company."
The leadership shakeup comes as a report last week indicated Microsoft may be planning large-scale layoffs and potential studio closures around the fiscal year changeover. With both the head of XGS and the chief of staff exiting simultaneously, Xbox is now searching for its third head of first-party studios in under three years.
