Former Rare exec producer Louise O’Connor has been appointed chief of staff at Xbox Game Studios.
As reported by VGC, O’Connor — who has been at Rare for 25 years, joining at the time the team worked on the 2001 platform game Conker’s Bad Fur Day — has been redeployed after the fantasy adventure game, Everwild, was canceled earlier this year.
The studio’s former head, Craig Duncan, also left at the end of last year after he assumed the role of head of Xbox Game Studios following Alan Hartman’s retirement.
Everwild was canceled at the same time Microsoft made brutal cuts to its gaming division, coinciding with the end of Microsoft’s financial year on June 30. Around 4% of its headcount was laid off, impacting around 9,000 employees.
It was the fourth round of layoffs at Microsoft’s gaming division in 18 months, and Microsoft laid off another 3% of its staff back in May.