It was another momentous week for games as I traveled to Disneyland for the Casual Connect USA 2018 event, which drew 1,400 attendees to Anaheim, California. While I was listening to talks on subjects including diversity and blockchain, the game industry decided to play musical chairs with some of its most important leaders.
Matt Booty is the corporate vice president in charge of games at Xbox at Microsoft.
Phil Spencer, Microsoft’s head of games, kicked himself upstairs and promoted a replacement, Matt Booty, who is now responsible for game software. Judging by the response on social media, gamers want Booty to commission more blockbuster exclusive games, as Microsoft has lagged behind Sony in this generation. I would say that his should be his top task.
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Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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