Matt Booty Age of Booty

AS XBOX ENTERS ITS MOST IMPORTANT YEAR FOR A DECADE, WE SIT DOWN WITH HEAD OF MICROSOFT STUDIOS MATT BOOTY TO CHAT ABOUT THE NEXTGEN XBOX, HOW MUCH LIFE THE XBOX ONE STILL HAS LEFT AND WHY GAME PASS IS CHANGING THE INDUSTRY

- DAVE MEIKLEHAM / JOSH WEST

Forget what the Chinese Zodiac says. Eastern calendars will tell you 2020 is the Year Of The Rat, but any clued-in Xbox fan knows it’s really the 366 Of Xbox Series X. This is perhaps the most important year in Xbox history, as Microsoft juggles the launch of its next-gen console with existing hardware commitments. The Redmond giant also has a stream of new IPs in development, not to mention the nevermore-ambitious Xbox Game Pass to nurture. Take all these demands into account, and it’s no wonder Matt Booty is the busiest man in the biz. The head of Xbox Game Studios started his 25-plus-year career as sound department manager at Williams Electronics Games before rising through the ranks of Midway. Now he’s in charge of running all of Microsoft’s first-party studios, and we caught up with Booty to talk Scarlett (before the announcement that it would be called Xbox Series X), the future of Xbox One, and just how much Xbox Game Pass could change the industry going forward.

Since 2018, Microsoft has acquired seven studios and created two others, growing the Xbox Game Studios portfolio to 15 first-party teams. You’ve said now’s the time to start delivering on that growth – how strong is Microsoft’s position as we head into 2020?