After completing its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Xbox is changing the way it manages the many studios now under its umbrella.In a new internal memo (thanks ，The Verge), Phil Spencer revealed that Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty will now have greater oversight of some studios.
Booty was promoted to president of content and studios, which puts him in charge of ZeniMax and its subsidiary studios like Bethesda Softworks. “ZeniMax will continue to operate as a limited integrated entity, led by President and CEO Jamie Leder, reporting to Matt,” Spencer wrote. “In addition, to deepen our partnership and accelerate mutual learning, some ZeniMax leaders will now report to the Microsoft leader with whom they work most closely.
Initially, Xbox took a very hands-off approach to the studios it acquired, simply letting them develop as they saw fit. However, this has led to several disasters in recent years (cough, cough, Red Fall), so now it seems Xbox wants to keep a close eye on what its studios are doing.
We probably won’t see this organization’s influence change for some time, but it’s interesting to see Xbox no longer taking a cool, hands-off approach.
