Xbox promotes Mike Ybarra and Kareem Choudhry

Following a report that originated on Windows Central yesterday, citing "sources familiar with Microsoft's plans," a spokesperson for the company has indeed confirmed to GamesIndustry.biz that both Mike Ybarra and Kareem Choudhry have been promoted. Ybarra will now serve as CVP of Xbox Program Management while Choudhry's new title is CVP, Xbox Software Engineering - both will report to Xbox chief Phil Spencer.

Ybarra was previously managing partnerships at Microsoft Studios, which led to publishing deals for titles like Gears of War, Ryse, and Sunset Overdrive, among others. He's now responsible for the team that's been working on important features such as Xbox One's backward compatibility, Xbox functionality in Windows 10, and the upcoming redesign of the Xbox dashboard.

Choudhry used to head up Kinect development, but Microsoft eventually deemphasized the motion camera and unbundled it from the console, so Choudhry then shifted to manage all Xbox development. As Windows Central pointed out, he is featured in Microsoft's Project Scorpio trailer, describing the upcoming 4K console as "a monster."

Both Ybarra and Choudhry no doubt have their hands full in the months ahead, leading up to E3 where we're likely to see and hear a lot about Scorpio, followed by Microsoft's actual launch of the mid-cycle upgrade console later in the year.