It’s finally official: Julie Larson-Green revealed in an internal memo that Stephen Elop will be taking her place as executive vice president of Microsoft’s Devices and Services division. This will make him in charge of Xbox, as well as Microsoft Game Studios.
Larson-Green herself has accepted a new role as chief executive officer of the My Life and Work team, essentially putting her back in charge of Windows. Experts explain the role change is not exactly a demotion, and is a better fit for her given her background.
Still, Larson-Green can boast of several accomplishments as head of Devices and Studios. She oversaw the actual launch of the Xbox One, Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2. She was also there when Microsoft Game Studios launched Ryse: Son of Rome and Forza Motorsport 5. She will still be in charge of the launch of the Xbox One in the UK, as well as the release of Titanfall.
In fact, Larson-Green will still be in charge of Xbox for some time, at least until such time as when Microsoft finalizes their deal with Nokia.
If you are an Xbox fan, I want you to remember this about Julie Larson-Green: She put the ribbon in Microsoft Office, and she steered the Xbox One on a steady course after the previous head, Don Mattrick, had a disastrous reveal event, the ramifications of which would lead to a total revision of their DRM/always online policies. Larson-Green was not able to fix everything ailing in Team Xbox, but she put things in order in the past few months she was there.
