Xbox Game Studios’ New Boss Used To Run Rare, And He’s Also Excited For The Nintendo Switch 2

Yesterday, Xbox Game Studios head Craig Duncan shared updates on Microsoft’s upcoming games in a podcast with one of the heads in Microsoft’s marketing, Tina Amini. It was in this interview that Duncan revealed that Fable was delayed to 2026. He also shared his sentiment that bringing games to more platforms is a positive for everyone involved. But there’s another thing he mentioned, that bears returning to some history.

When Amini asked him what he was “looking forward to the rest of the year, maybe something non-Xbox Studios,” Duncan said this:

“Was cool to see the Switch 2 announcement, so like always curious and excited about what Nintendo do, so I think that will be cool. But yeah, just like we have lots going on.”

We couldn’t fault you if you didn’t remember any of this. But before Duncan was promoted to head of Xbox Game Studios last October, he was the head of Rare. And it was as the head of Rare that Duncan oversaw the success of Sea of Thieves on PC and Xbox Series X|S, and its subsequent revival when it was ported to PlayStation 5.

As the head of Rare, Duncan was also part of the talks between Rare’s former partner, Nintendo. When Rare’s Nintendo 64 classic Banjo-Kazooie was added to the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack all the way back in October 2021, Duncan shared this message on Twitter:

“Always a pleasure to work with our good friends at Nintendo, I’m a big fan of #NintendoSwitchOnline and it’s really important to preserve classic games for future generations to play. Banjo and other @RareLtd classics also available on @XboxGamePass and as part of #RareReplay”

Duncan was also directly involved in the recent return of GoldenEye 007, published on Nintendo Switch Online, and also as a standalone game on Xbox Series X|S. In this interview, Duncan revealed that he was in the middle of negotiating the rights for the game to enable a rerelease, including Nintendo, MGM, Xbox, and no doubt the Broccoli heirs.

Duncan consistently refers to Nintendo as Microsoft’s good friends, and it certainly looks like that good relationship continues now that he has risen up in Xbox’s ranks. That’s obviously great news for Nintendo, as they and Microsoft can work together on more games.

As we had pointed out, before Microsoft started bringing their first party games to PlayStation 5, they established an amicable working relationship with Nintendo. And if the Switch 2 turns out to match those high hopes when it comes to its power and performance, Microsoft and Nintendo may be in a position to do more with each other than Microsoft can do with PlayStation.

And so we should probably also be curious and excited for the Nintendo Switch 2, and what their friends at Xbox will be up to in relation to their upcoming platform.