Xbox Game Studios Update With Craig Duncan | Official Xbox Podcast

SPEAKER 1: Games in this podcast range from E to M.

TINA AMINI: Hello, and welcome to the official Xbox Podcast. I'm here with a very special guest today, I get the great pleasure of introducing you all to Craig Duncan, our new Head of Xbox Game Studios. Welcome to Xbox Studio, not to be confused with your Xbox Game Studios.

CRAIG DUNCAN: So I'm in charge of this as well? This is new, like this is -- that's, I didn't realize that.

TINA AMINI: We don't make games here--

CRAIG DUNCAN: Good to see you, Tina.

TINA AMINI: Good to see you too. Yeah, so we don't make games here, we do make games marketing here, as well as this lovely podcast. So yes, thank you so much for joining the podcast. I do want to start with kind of giving the community a little bit of context about your very storied history and career in games. You've been in games for two decades, so you've seen a lot, you've seen the ups and down of the industry, the literal ups and downs.

CRAIG DUNCAN: Yeah.

TINA AMINI: You've also been lauded where you were Studio Head at Rare for many years. You've been lauded for your work there. The studio culture, obviously you shipped Rare Replay, you've been in charge of Sea of Thieves for its millions, aka seven years it's been ongoing now. And you actually have been working with Ninja Theory and Compulsion before this new role. So you've been around the block, as they say.

CRAIG DUNCAN: Yeah, it's been a fun couple of decades, and I love what I do, like that's why I do what I do. And very lucky to see a bunch of the transition on the games industry, joined back in 2002, I worked for a European publisher called Codemasters that was kind of my learn how to make games, made a bunch of different kind of games; action games, sports games, then a little bit of (inaudible) midway games, a little bit of (inaudible) digital, and then joined Rare to lead them. And I've seen Xbox evolve and change over, I guess 14 years I've been with Xbox now. And really, the part of the job I love more than anything is working with studios. I think everyone's role is important, and I think my job as a leader is to help create the right environment for our teams to be successful, create a culture where they can support each other, help each other. Making games is really hard, it's not any easier now than it was 20 years ago. In fact, it's harder than ever, competition is higher, player expectations are higher. So, I think my job is about creating the culture and supporting our leaders, supporting our teams to do the very best work they can, because I think if I do that, then hopefully that shows in the games we make and what goes to our players.

TINA AMINI: Yeah, absolutely. Honestly a favorite part of my job too, just getting to know all of our talent at our studios. Like incredible talent, so an incredible job that you have in front of you. But well-suited to the role, obviously, since you've had a lot of that pedigree, which is --

CRAIG DUNCAN: Yeah.

TINA AMINI: -- exciting and I'm happy for the studios and how we're moving forward. So, I'd love to talk about that as well, like we've got a big and exciting year ahead of us. We kicked off the year with Developer Direct. I want to talk about the games that were in Developer Direct, because we've got a chance to talk about the release dates so we know what's coming, when it's coming. But we also just released Avowed, Obsidian's latest game. So I've been spending the weekend playing that myself. How about you?

CRAIG DUNCAN: Yeah, I mean, again, the lucky part of this job, spend time with all the teams, spent a bunch of time with the Obsidian team. And then really, like I feel like I've been playing Avowed for like three or four months, because we've -- yeah, we obviously look at what we're building. But just seeing the reaction of players, seeing the reviews, seeing just people share the same love for the (inaudible), they've got so much passion, Carrie, Feargus, all of the team, so much passion into the game. And yeah, it's a wonderful game, it's got wonderful story. If you haven't checked it out, go check it out. But just seeing all the reviews and it's a real personal moment for a team when you put a game out there.

TINA AMINI: Absolutely.

CRAIG DUNCAN: And just seeing the reactions and just some of the hype around the game, and people really enjoying it, I think's been great to see.

TINA AMINI: Yeah, I'm unfortunately only five hours in, so immediately when we wrap up I'm going home and I'm playing some more.

CRAIG DUNCAN: Okay, yeah.

TINA AMINI: This has been officially sanctioned. But even five hours in there's so much depth and richness.

CRAIG DUNCAN: Yeah.

TINA AMINI: And we've had the pleasure of having Carrie Patel, Game Director, out on the podcast before. She's been on Extended with me, so I've gotten to talk to her quite a bit. I love Carrie, shout out to Carrie.

CRAIG DUNCAN: Yeah, absolutely. And just Obsidians play the game your way, and just like Avowed, sure it's a game you can play through the story and through the side quests, but there's actually quite a lot of the way you load out with your character, that you can really play the game in very, very different ways and I love that. >> Yeah. It's both the game play, but then it's also the exploration which is really cool. I was just at DICE and a lot of my journalist friends were telling me, oh, my God, the verticality! And it's like yes, we've been basically talking about the verticality in the podcast with Carrie and there is so much to do and there is that sense of, I see that thing in the distance and I want to go engage with that thing. And there's something in that environment for you to do. Yeah, yeah.

TINA AMINI: And it's like my kind of game, and been seeing a lot of good reviews out there.

CRAIG DUNCAN: Yeah, and just like the story and the setting and like I'm super happy for Obsidian and --

TINA AMINI: World-class storytellers, I'm loving Kai so far. He's like scratching my like New Yorker sarcasm itch. So it's personality-wise, we're a good fit.

CRAIG DUNCAN: Good, I love that.

TINA AMINI: Well, we also had a bunch of other games showcased in Developer Direct this year. First off, I just have to say, I absolutely love working on that show. It's both because we get to like really embed with the studios, like at their studio, so all of the audience gets to see what is the studio environment and like what is the culture, how are people working together. And it's just such a beautiful storytelling format, I think, if I'm --

CRAIG DUNCAN: Yeah, I love the format and I think just, and I think you said it well earlier, just putting our talent, like we have so many -- so much talent across our studios and just the more you put them -- I always feel a little bit of a shill when I come and do this thing. It's like, you don't really want to hear from me talking about our games, you want to hear from our team members, and Developer Direct is just a really great setting for them to talk about the games and the passion and yeah, like South of Midnight was on there, which obviously a team I've worked super closely with. And hearing them tell the story and the inspiration, it's a great format.

TINA AMINI: Yeah, I love the Compulsion team, this is actually their third ever game, which is pretty incredible.

CRAIG DUNCAN: Yep.

TINA AMINI: They have a very unique style, if you've, if the community our there has played their previous two games as well. People were really celebrating the storytelling, the performances, and there's so much heart in that game and I love to see people enjoying that when I've seen the reviews.

CRAIG DUNCAN: Yeah, it's a, and again, very, very lucky I've been playing it a lot. The creatures, the storytelling, the southern gothic, like there's no game I can think of that's been in a setting that they've realized and it's beautiful, the art's beautiful. The, like I said, storytelling, the creatures, the audio, the music --

TINA AMINI: The music too, yes. Especially the music, you always, in every game the music is definitely matching the tone, like the ambience. Are you in a boss fight, or are you just in an environmental kind of more peaceful setting. But the way that the music's like literally speaking to the bosses.

CRAIG DUNCAN: It's the storytelling.

TINA AMINI: It's their theme song. Exactly.

CRAIG DUNCAN: It's incredible.

TINA AMINI: I thought it was so clever. Yeah. So I was really happy to have that in our show, that one's coming out April 8, we announced in Developer Direct. Fun fact actually, before we talk about the other games, is Art Director, Whitney Clayton, who opened the (inaudible) for South of Midnight, she actually designed their whole studios too. The studio space itself. And it is gorgeous.

CRAIG DUNCAN: It's a wonderful place, yeah.

TINA AMINI: -- I wanted to steal her over and help design our of offices and he said, absolutely not. So that's not happening.

CRAIG DUNCAN: See, I went for a different thing, I'm like hey, I can just be based in here. Because --

TINA AMINI: Yes.

CRAIG DUNCAN: -- it just feels so creative and it's back to back, you want to be surrounded by the things that inspire you.

TINA AMINI: Yes and you feel the creativity when you're there.

CRAIG DUNCAN: Yeah, absolutely.

TINA AMINI: I very much love their space and that's the beauty of Developer Direct, you get to see some of that in the environmental storytelling that we do in the show. But we also had a very exciting reveal with Ninja Gaiden 4. So that's been in the works for some time. What is our backstory with that franchise?

CRAIG DUNCAN: Yeah, and I love the story behind that. So, not only Team Ninja, but along with Platinum Games and I know there was a lot of, what are Platinum Games working on, really prestigious developer. Ninja Gaiden, I mean it's a franchise started on arcade and then home computers. And I guess, I think the original Nintendo there was a Ninja Gaiden version, if my memory serves me correctly. But it's also a franchise that's been synonymous with Xbox over the years in multiple generations. So, just to bring a super up-to-date, highly polished, just seeing just the pace of combat, the excitement, the boss -- like it's got so much. And I think fans are going to be blown away by the game. They're going to enjoy it. I actually love the shadow drop of Ninja Gaiden 2 as well.

TINA AMINI: Yes, a little bonus surprise, yes.

CRAIG DUNCAN: And just the fact that we get to have those kind of surprises in the shows and people can go play it immediately on Game Pass is really great, and look forward to Ninja Gaiden 4 later this year.

TINA AMINI: Exactly, it's such a good way to just kind of set it back up and scratch that nostalgia itch, and then remind the community about like the great prowess and --

CRAIG DUNCAN: It's been a while since the last one --

TINA AMINI: Yes, exactly. Yeah.

CRAIG DUNCAN: Yeah, just putting it back on people's radars and what was great about the franchise, but the publishing team really excited about it. Everything we're seeing, like we think the game's shaping up really well. So.

TINA AMINI: Yes, we have so much love for Ninja Gaiden internally. The producer on my team that took on that particular segment and flew to Japan and worked with the studio, used to back in the day work for IGN, 10 years ago was begging for the return of Ninja Gaiden, so very special for a lot of us internally at Xbox, to be kind of bringing this out into the world with those teams and get the community as excited as we are --

CRAIG DUNCAN: Yeah, it's a great franchise.

TINA AMINI: -- really special. Yes, absolutely. Well, we also had third-party friends show up --

CRAIG DUNCAN: You did?

TINA AMINI: -- with a new studio, Sandfall Interactive, this is their first game that they're ever shipping together as a team, and it's Expedition 33. It looks gorgeous.

CRAIG DUNCAN: I'm excited to play this one. Like, and again, this is the bit where it's not part of my job, but it was the, it was the game in the show that I'm like hey, I really like it. JRPG, plus unique setting, plus new IP. Yeah, I'm really excited to play. I think I've seen as much as anyone else has seen, but --

TINA AMINI: The only one you can say that with.

CRAIG DUNCAN: Absolutely, but what I love about Developer Direct again, is it showcasing a new studio, a new IP, and I love that we can do that on the biggest stage and show that to the world. So.

TINA AMINI: Yeah, and that team is really wonderful. I got to spend time with them working on their segment together. Their love for JRPGs is just so apparent. They were so embedded in their segment it was like such a pleasure to work with them and help them tell their story.

CRAIG DUNCAN: Incredible.

TINA AMINI: Yes, absolutely, they really have their own like unique positioning on it, and like really making it their own. It's very fun to learn from the behind the scenes, like just how much they're putting into this game, and we announced it's coming out April 24, so --

CRAIG DUNCAN: Yes, very soon.

TINA AMINI: -- another, yeah, another one to make for a busy year. And there was one other game in Developer Direct, of course, our big closer, our summer blockbuster if you will, for DOOM: The Dark Ages, announced for May 15. So very exciting to have that one close out the show.

CRAIG DUNCAN: Yeah, and again, super excited for the game, the team, and just it's an amazing franchise, very storied franchise, DOOM. And again, I don't want to speak for them, but like I think it's going to be an amazing version of DOOM, very different, but yeah. Just --

TINA AMINI: It feels that way to me too.

CRAIG DUNCAN: Super cool.

TINA AMINI: Speaking of it being a storied franchise, they did such a good job, both Hugo and Marty just kind of drawing back on like the previous DOOMs, the role that you played, and then what that is compared to Dark Ages.

CRAIG DUNCAN: Yeah.

TINA AMINI: And that kind of like big mecca, like gob smacking chaos that you're going to be finding yourself in. So, definitely that big summer blockbuster vibe for May 15 release date. We did also prevails announce that DOOM was going to be coming to other platforms. And since then we've had a bunch of other news about other games of ours coming to other platforms. Speaking of Bethesda, also Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.

CRAIG DUNCAN: Yep, of course.

TINA AMINI: And brief sidebar for Indiana Jones, that won, took home three awards from DICE actually.

CRAIG DUNCAN: Yeah, huge, congratulations.

TINA AMINI: Yeah, I had the pleasure of congratulating Todd in person, like the team was really excited. It was so great to see MachineGames on stage, taking home three awards. So they won Adventure Game of the Year, Outstanding Achievement in Character, which of course went to Trip Baker for Indie himself, and Achievement in Story. All super well-deserved.

CRAIG DUNCAN: Well-deserved.

TINA AMINI: I loved playing that game. I think I devoured it in two days, doing nothing else with my life, but I think it was well-spent hours I would say.

CRAIG DUNCAN: Yeah, me too, and again kind of got to play it pre-launch, but what they built was incredible and well-deserving of all the awards.

TINA AMINI: Yeah, absolutely. Very happy for that team.

CRAIG DUNCAN: Yeah, me too.

TINA AMINI: But on that note, some of the games that are going to be coming to other platforms, they're some of our like long-standing kind of flagship series if you will. So I'm just curious what you think the Xbox community should take away from the fact that we've made that decision to bring more games to more platforms.

CRAIG DUNCAN: Yeah, I think it's good for gamers, I think it's good for our studios. Our studios make amazing games, and we want to give those games the chance to reach the broadest audience possible. So, even if I think back to when I had my Studio Head of Sea of Thieves hat on, having to see if these reach their multiple platforms, being able to remove barriers so those players could play together. And then we announced Forza Horizon 5, which one of the biggest games on Xbox. I'm very biased, of course, because I know the team super well, but arguably I think probably one of the best racing games ever, ever, ever, ever made.

TINA AMINI: I think a lot of people agree with you.

CRAIG DUNCAN: I just think it's good for gamers, it's good to have our games reach more places.

TINA AMINI: It's some of that quality of life element for gamers, but also happy for our developers that get a chance to share their art with more people.

CRAIG DUNCAN: Everyone that makes a game wants it to reach as many players as possible. So.

TINA AMINI: Exactly.

CRAIG DUNCAN: I love that we can give that opportunity.

TINA AMINI: Absolutely. Well, there's one other highly anticipated game --

CRAIG DUNCAN: Yes!

TINA AMINI: -- that people would be very excited about, that we haven't talked about yet, and that's Fable.

CRAIG DUNCAN: Yes.

TINA AMINI: So where are we at with Fable?

CRAIG DUNCAN: So, I just want to start with really excited, really excited about progress, really excited where Playground are. We previously announced the date for Fable as 2025, we are actually going to give Fable more time and it's going to ship in 2026 now. While I know that's not maybe the news people want to hear, what I want to assure people of is that it's definitely worth the wait. And I just, I have unequivocal confidence in the Playground team. If you think about their history and legacy for Forza Horizon, the last two games critically acclaimed (inaudible) --

TINA AMINI: Award-winning.

CRAIG DUNCAN: Award-winning, beautiful, played great. And just what they're bringing to Fable as a franchise, just think of the visuals of what you expect of Playground Games, plus amazing game play, British humor, Playground's version of Albion, so inspired by what's gone before with the franchise, but their take. And quite frankly, the most beautifully realized version of Albion you've ever seen. So really excited about the plans and really excited about the future and I want the community to understand that we do these things for the best of the games, and the teams, and ultimately that results in the best games, or the best game for the community.

TINA AMINI: And I think from your visit you actually managed to bring over some footage for us to see some of those beautiful visuals as well.

CRAIG DUNCAN: Yeah. So, I think we're going to show some of the, some of the footage, this isn't a trailer or anything. We thought as we were going to talk about the game, it was important to show some of the things.

TINA AMINI: Yeah, we get to see some of these scenes, like kind of both just walking through environments where, and there will be some combat, some city walking scenes, just really seeing how the beautiful variety in environments that are in the game.

CRAIG DUNCAN: Yeah, and I've played some aspects of it that are in the city based, and again, I'm trying to be very careful that I don't spoil anything. Ralph and the team won't forgive me if I spoil something. But I played some of the city elements, I played some of the quests, I played some of the combat, I played a boss battle, I've used magic. Like it felt amazing, and I had a great time, and again, I remember the originals and the scene, I've played that in game play. I'm not going to spoil the backstory of what's going on, but as you can see, genuinely beautiful. Plays great.

TINA AMINI: Just seeing like the cinematics and then cutting to the actual like fight over here, it's gorgeous. It can barely tell the difference, which is such a seamless transition.

CRAIG DUNCAN: Yeah. It's very real, everything you're seeing here is very playable. I've seen a bunch more than that, I'm very excited. So take my word for it. But hopefully what the team can see here is enough to build excitement.

TINA AMINI: I love the little details, it's great to see how much emphasis is being put into all of that.

CRAIG DUNCAN: Yeah, and there's no bigger fans of Fable as a franchise as the Playground team that are making it. So I think it's a really fun balance between what are the game tenets that are true to Fable, and what's some modern day reimagining of what is Playground Games' version of Fable.

TINA AMINI: Yeah, absolutely. The modern retelling of Fable. Very excited myself, I've been a massive Fable player since day one. So, I'm excited for 2026.

CRAIG DUNCAN: Yeah.

TINA AMINI: Alright, well that's all the news that we have for this particular episode and for what's coming up for the rest of the year. But before we send you back off to go hang out with other studios and see all of their games and tell me about all the things that you're seeing there, I would just love to know like what are you playing, what are you looking forward to the rest of the year, maybe something non-Xbox Studios.

CRAIG DUNCAN: Yeah, it's kind of tricky, because this job is full on, like as you would imagine. And so I spend a lot of time, so obviously I'm over in Redmond this week. I've got a Steam Deck that's full of XGS games, so I spend a lot of our time playing our own games. We've got a bunch of stuff we haven't announced, so obviously I spend a bunch of time with that. I think as we've talked about earlier, I think Expedition 33 I think is something I'm looking forward to playing. Was cool to see the Switch 2 announcement, so like always curious and excited about what Nintendo do, so I think that will be cool. But yeah, just like we have lots going on.

TINA AMINI: We do.

CRAIG DUNCAN: So I try and spend as much time as I can playing our own games. Yeah, so.

TINA AMINI: We'll call it research.

CRAIG DUNCAN: Yeah, yeah.

TINA AMINI: It's fun research.

CRAIG DUNCAN: It is fun research.

TINA AMINI: That's me playing Avowed later.

CRAIG DUNCAN: It's the best part of the job.

TINA AMINI: Continue my journey, yes, exactly. Well, thank you so much for coming by, I hope we have you again here at Xbox Studio, not to be confused with Xbox Game Studios.

CRAIG DUNCAN: That is confusing.

TINA AMINI: -- many locations, we are but one location, here in Redmond as well. And yeah, we're looking forward to seeing more the rest of the year, and I hope everyone else at home watching is similarly excited. And we'll see you at the next show.