Kinect and HoloLens developer Kudo Tsunoda expands role at Microsoft
Will lead teams such as Rare, Lionhead and Lift London.
Microsoft's corporate vice president Kudo Tsunoda, creative director on Kinect and HoloLens, is expanding his role at the Xbox manufacturer.
"Kudo will lead the vision and experience development of our other Microsoft Studios portfolio investments in the United States, Europe and across our Global Publishing team," Microsoft just announced. "Kudo has been driving the creative direction and experience development for Microsoft HoloLens, and will bring a fresh, innovative and gamer-centric approach to development for our expanding and diverse game portfolio across Xbox and Windows 10 devices including HoloLens."
Kudo further clarified in the following video that he'll be leading "a bunch of new Xbox teams" that include Rare, Lionhead, Lift London, Press Play, Twisted Pixel and Decisive Games. He'll be working on such titles as Quantum Break, Scalebound, Crackdown and some new franchises.
When asked if he'll be replacing Microsoft's other corporate vice president Phil Harrison, who's reported to be leaving, we received the following statement from a Microsoft spokesperson:
“With the exception of Halo, Gears or War, Forza and Minecraft, Kudo will lead the vision and experience development of our other Microsoft Studios portfolio investments in the United States, Europe and across our Global Publishing team. Mike Nichols, CVP of Marketing for Xbox will continue to lead Marketing for Xbox Globally. Phil Harrison, CVP Xbox EMEA, continues to report directly to Phil Spencer.”
Microsoft is making other staffing shifts as well. For example, GM of Black Tusk Studios, Hanno Lemke, will now be GM of UK studios and Press Play (Max and the Cursed Brotherhood, Kalimba). Elsewhere, studio head of Lionhead, John Needham, is moving to Redmond, WA to work on HoloLens and some new IPs.
Meanwhile, Microsoft confirmed that the Halo, Gears of War, Forza and Minecraft franchises will continue to report to head of Xbox, Phil Spencer.
