Scott Henson appointed Rare studio manager
Former Xbox Live, 360 and Kinect exec "honoured and humbled" to take the reins
Microsoft has appointed Scott Henson as studio manager at Rare, taking over the role being vacated by Mark Betteridge - who will be staying on with the company in a more hands-on development role.
Henson, who has been with Microsoft for 16 years and previously helped shape Xbox Live, Xbox 360 and Kinect, told GamesIndustry.biz that he was "honoured and humbled" to be taking on the job, and that he felt the studio had a "very bright future".
"The role Microsoft Game Studios has as first-party innovator is to push the boundaries of the platform forward, to create great new experiences that will delight millions of customers," he explained. "Rare will lead the charge on that, and Kinect will be a big part of that future.
"How I envision Rare, is that they'll continue to innovate, continue to partner with folks like the Platform team - that's part of my heritage - and continue to bring those experiences to life. When I look at what they've accomplished in that domain, I see a very bright future.
"I think we're very strongly positioned around Kinect Sports, so we'll just build on that success."
Betteridge's passion for making games was the primary reason behind his change in focus, according to Henson - and a decision taken by Betteridge himself.
"Mark is a fantastic game creator, with a fantastic history, and he's made some incredible games," said Henson. "He's made a personal decision that being studio manager isn't what he wants to focus on.
"If you look at Kinect Sports you'll see there are a lot of sports there that are great and well-tuned - well, you can look at Mark Betteridge and give that guy credit, because he really got in there with the team in the last several months and really honed and tuned those experiences.
"I'm looking forward to partnering with Mark in that type of role moving forward - I think that's where his passion is, where his gift is, and that's where he wants to focus his time and energy moving forward."
Henson, who hails from the US, will relocate to Birmingham, UK, along with his family in the coming weeks.