Just weeks after closing the Activision Blizzard acquisition, Microsoft is making some changes to its Xbox Studios structure: in an internal memo obtained by The Verge, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty has been promoted to president of Game Content & Studios and will be responsible for studios such as ZeniMax and its subsidiary Bethesda Softworks.

"ZeniMax will continue to operate as a limited integrated entity led by President and CEO Jamie Leder and reporting directly to Matt," Spencer wrote. "All ZeniMax development studios and the ZeniMax Central Services team will continue to report to Jamie to maintain and optimize our current content development and production cycles. Also, to deepen our partnership and accelerate mutual learning, many ZeniMax leaders will now report to the Microsoft leader with whom they work most closely"

.

Although Spencer did not mention it by name, one gets the sense that this reorganization is at least partially aimed at avoiding a "Red Falls"-like situation: this multiplayer FPS developed by Arkane was one of the biggest bombings of 2023, and six months after its release Bloomberg reports that Arkane Austin employees had hoped that the project would be rebooted or cancelled altogether by Microsoft's acquisition. Neither happened: instead, Microsoft allowed ZeniMax to move forward with the project, resulting in a mass exodus of veteran employees from the studio and the creation of Redfall.

Clearly, the cowboy days were over. Great games are the foundation of everything we do," Spencer wrote.

"I believe that by expanding our game content organization so that Xbox Game Studios and ZeniMax's development studios can work together effectively, we can grow a portfolio of games that world-class studios can do their best work and that players will love.

I'm not a big fan of too much direction from the top, but this may be the right move. While Microsoft is not immune to stumbles (just look at "Halo: Infinite"), 2023 has not been a good year for Bethesda; "Redfall" is a clear stain, but even "Starfield" has not lived up to its pre-release hype: Bethesda's open It was a perfect world RPG (and frankly, we liked it), and by all reports, it was a big seller. But it was also routine and did not deliver the sprawling sci-fi epic we were looking forward to.

The restructuring comes just a week after the departure of Pete Hines, once head of publishing at Bethesda and Bethesda's version of Larry Hive. Among various other promotions, Spencer also announced that Sarah Bond, previously Microsoft's Xbox corporate vice president, will be promoted to president of Xbox.