Former Forza boss Alan Hartman has been appointed head of Xbox Game Studios

Microsoft has appointed former Turn 10 boss Alan Hartman as its new head of Xbox Game Studios.

Hartman, who joined the Forza Motorsport developer back in 2005, had spent the last two years working as corporate vice president of Forza and Fable.

“Thrilled to be representing such an elite set of game creators in my new role leading Xbox Game Studios!” he wrote on LinkedIn.

Hartman’s promotion follows several recently announced Xbox leadership changes.

He is taking on the role previously held by Matt Booty, who has been promoted to president of game content and studios, a role which incorporates overseeing the work of ZeniMax and Bethesda.

Sarah Bond was also promoted from corporate vice president at Xbox to Xbox president. In her new role, she has taken over the running of the division’s hardware and software platforms.

The leadership changes also coincide with Microsoft finally completing its $69 million acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

Earlier this week, Xbox announced a multi-year deal with Inworld to build AI dialogue and narrative tools at scale.

Haiyan Zhang, Xbox’s general manager of gaming AI, said the goal of the partnership is to create new state-of-the-art tools for multiplatform developers of all sizes.