With the acquisition of the group Activision Blizzard Kingthe studios under the aegis of Xbox are more numerous than ever and this is undoubtedly why Microsoft decided to reorganize its video game branch. Rest assured, Phil Spencer remains at the head of Microsoft Gaming inasmuch as CEObut the branch Xbox as such is now led by Sarah Bond, who became its president. Until now, she held the role of corporate vice president, so it’s a well-deserved promotion that puts her in charge of everything related to the brand’s software and hardware, including the upcoming potentially leaked consoles. One of the other major changes was the appointment of Matt Booty, who was responsible for Xbox Game Studios, as president of game studios and content. He will therefore be partly responsible for ZeniMax and therefore Bethesdaeven if the publisher will continue to operate as a “limited integration entity”.
Phil Spencer sent a very long memo internally to employees, which details this reorganization and was shared by The Verge :
It’s been two weeks since we closed our deal with ABK, an acquisition that will have a significant impact on our current and future success. Since then, I have been on tour, visiting the teams. It’s great to see the ambition of the games they create, the depth of talent among the teams, and their excitement to be part of Microsoft with a creative culture that aligns with theirs.
Microsoft Gaming is on a multi-year journey to reach players where they are, on the devices they choose to play on, and our strategy works. We have thirteen franchises worth over a billion dollars in our portfolio and we have just established new engagement records in Game Pass. As our business continues to grow, it is important that we structure ourselves to maintain this momentum with effective clarity and accountability across the gaming industry. With this in mind, we are today making the following organizational changes:
Great games are fundamental to everything we do. We believe that an expanded gaming content organization that allows Xbox Game Studios and ZeniMax development studios to collaborate effectively will allow these world-class studios to do their best to grow our portfolio of games that gamers love. . Matt Booty will lead this expanded organization as President of Games and Studios Content.
ZeniMax will continue to operate as a limited-integration entity led by Jamie Leder, president and CEO, who will report to Matt. All ZeniMax development studios and ZeniMax Central Services teams will continue to report to Jamie to maintain and optimize current content development and production cycles. Additionally, in order to deepen our partnership and accelerate mutual learning, a number of ZeniMax executives will now report to the Microsoft executives with whom their work most closely aligns.
Through our innovative devices, products and services, and our global community, Xbox is the primary way we connect games and their creators with gamers around the world. These experiences are as fundamental as the games themselves, whether they are our first-party games or third-party games. To manage today’s platform and build tomorrow’s platform, we bring together the teams who will make it possible. Sarah Bond will lead this team as president of Xboxbringing together devices, player and creator experiences, platform engineering, strategy, business planning, data and analytics, and business development.
Ashley McKissick (Corporate Vice President, Player Experiences and Platforms), Kareem Choudhry (Corporate Vice President, Xbox Emerging Technologies), Roanne Sones (Corporate Vice President, Gaming Device Ecosystem), Lori Wright (Corporate Vice President , Partnerships and Business Development) and Kevin Gammill (Corporate Vice President, Ecosystem Product Management) will report to Sarah and lead their respective teams.
We have achieved our success by increasing our shared operations capabilities. We will therefore develop this strategy by aligning ZeniMax’s IT and facilities groups with our portfolio of operations and shared services. At the same time, continued leadership and focus on effective integration of Activision Blizzard is essential. Dave McCarthy will lead all of these efforts for our company as Chief Operating Officer of Microsoft Gaming.
We have ambitious growth goals for games, gamers, devices and brand love. OUR gaming marketing organizationwhich now includes Bethesda’s publishing team, plays a crucial role in generating demand, driving engagement, and inspiring promotion among players, creators, and partners. Jerret West will continue to lead this team as Chief Marketing Officer of Microsoft Gaming.
As some of you may have seen, our Consumer Sales Organization (CSO) will join the Microsoft Gaming team, led by Ami Silverman as director of consumer sales for Microsoft. CSO is Microsoft’s dedicated consumer retail vertical, reaching customers through direct and partner channels in critical markets. Ami’s statuses cover all consumer products, including devices and creativity (Windows, Surface, M365) and everything gaming. The goal of this team will be to transform game sales movements and attract new audiences in geographic markets. Dametra Johnson-Marletti (Corporate Vice President, Consumer Sales Organization) will continue to report to Ami and focus exclusively on gamingleveraging the common services and infrastructure of the CSO team.
Bobby Kotick (CEO of Activision Blizzard until the end of 2023)Joslyn Main (general manager, chief of staff), Cynthia Per-Lee (corporate vice-president, human resources), Kari Perez (general manager, communications), Linda Norman (corporate vice-president, CELA) and Tim Stuart (vice -corporate president, finance) continue to occupy their current positions within my team.
I’m excited to partner with this team of leaders to advance our mission for the next era of Xbox serving gamers and creators. I am confident that they will lead our organization to success in the months and years to come. Please join me in welcoming Ami and her team, and congratulating Matt, Sarah and Dave on their new roles.
Email is just one way to communicate change. Your manager and leader will tell you more in the coming days about how these changes may or may not impact your work. We will also discuss this evolution of our organization during our next public meeting on Monday, October 30 to 1:00 p.m. PT. Thank you for your contributions and dedication to everything we do to bring the joy of gaming to everyone on the planet.
Phil
By the way, we are learning that after 32 years spent with Microsoftmarketing director Chris Capossela leaves his place to Takeshi Numoto, while Yusuf Mehdi is promoted to executive vice president and consumer marketing director. The Redmond firm is banking heavily on the video game sector and the integration of AI into its products, hence this restructuring. On the other hand, not a word on the person who will replace Bobby Kotick starting next year.
If you play on Xboxsubscription to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is sold for €14.99 for one month on Amazon, to the Fnac Or at the house of Cdiscount.