I’d be surprised if Xbox is a thing in 5 years after this news. The way things are right now Microsoft can’t make an Xbox console that will succeed by any metric. Maybe it’ll stick around as software.
Phil had to salvage the brand after the fucking disaster that was Xbox One and I don’t think he was terrible but it clearly wasn’t working out.
Replacing him with the head of Core AI is a fucking joke though.
With the cost of hardware skyrocketing and Sony closing studios gaming is in a really dark place right now.
I see it as a good thing, maybe another videogame market crash is exactly what we need so they’ll understand that not every game needs to have an overblown budget, bloated content, micro transactions, massive player retention, sell a billion copies and win awards to be a good game, it’s about time videogames are recognized as being pieces of art first and products second
It’s in a dark place because it is going to eventually become unaffordable to those who haven’t purchased a console or pc or handheld yet due to the ram shortage. I guess mobile gaming will become the main focus like it is in China.
In fact, such regulations really need to go a lot further and make illegal straight up unnecessary subscriptions, too. If something doesn’t need actively maintained things outside of the actual product for it to function, then it doesn’t ‘need’ a subscription model.
Xbox is just going to be a brand/publisher I reckon.
There’ll be ‘Xbox verified’ console PCs or somesuch that aren’t necessarily made by Microsoft, and there’ll be the Xbox app for games and streaming, and Xbox published games.
And then another 5-10 years later they’ll phase that out and just be ‘Microsoft Gaming’ or somesuch branded, and the last traces of Xbox will be gone.
It’s already just a brand, Xbox is just their gaming brand. Xbox Game Pass isn’t limited to Xbox hardware. The first Xbox branded computers not made by Microsoft are already available (Asus ROG Xbox Ally). The real question is how long will Microsoft make hardware under the Xbox brand.
I wonder if this is a huge demotion for the AI guy. AI teams in Microsoft are “good” right now, I wonder if he fucked up in some way and they put him on xbox.
Yeah I don’t know. The knee jerk reaction Is “hey make Xbox have more AI”. She at least has the sense to have her first press release say “we’ll have no AI slop in our games” but we’ll see if that lasts.
The thing about that press release is that it fairly cleverly doesn’t say “no AI.” It says no slop. She’ll push AI, it’ll create slop (as always), but she’ll argue it isn’t slop and is actually great.
The term „AI art“ irks me, IMO it tries to legitimize the virtual theft that it’s based on by implying there‘s a creative, artistic process behind it. It‘s gotta be a lobbied term.
A silver lining is that the NVIDIA/OpenAI deal was cut by ~70% this week, so hopefully the reality of AI not being a panacea sets in for those who have been driving the prices up. If the planned data centers never actually get built, production will shift back and consumer pricing should adjust accordingly. The MBA class will keep trying to manipulate it artificially of course, but they’ll only be able to keep the ruse this far from reality for so long.
I’d be surprised if Xbox is a thing in 5 years after this news. The way things are right now Microsoft can’t make an Xbox console that will succeed by any metric. Maybe it’ll stick around as software.
Phil had to salvage the brand after the fucking disaster that was Xbox One and I don’t think he was terrible but it clearly wasn’t working out.
Replacing him with the head of Core AI is a fucking joke though.
With the cost of hardware skyrocketing and Sony closing studios gaming is in a really dark place right now.
I see it as a good thing, maybe another videogame market crash is exactly what we need so they’ll understand that not every game needs to have an overblown budget, bloated content, micro transactions, massive player retention, sell a billion copies and win awards to be a good game, it’s about time videogames are recognized as being pieces of art first and products second
Gaming is most definitely not in a dark place right now
Steamdeck, Gaming on Linux, indie games, Arc Raiders, skies are blue and the sun is shining my friend
Gaming is in a great place. AAA gaming is not, because of-fucking-course corpos don’t understand art.
It’s in a dark place because it is going to eventually become unaffordable to those who haven’t purchased a console or pc or handheld yet due to the ram shortage. I guess mobile gaming will become the main focus like it is in China.
Given all the fun I’ve had over the years with far less powerful systems, it’s not exactly a deathknell to gaming if it turns out that way.
It just better be the deathknell for terrible mobile game microtransaction structures and p2w schemes if mobile devices become the new norm…
My hope is the EU and China start to regulate mobile gaming for it to become less like casinos for children.
Fully agreed with that.
In fact, such regulations really need to go a lot further and make illegal straight up unnecessary subscriptions, too. If something doesn’t need actively maintained things outside of the actual product for it to function, then it doesn’t ‘need’ a subscription model.
Xbox is just going to be a brand/publisher I reckon.
There’ll be ‘Xbox verified’ console PCs or somesuch that aren’t necessarily made by Microsoft, and there’ll be the Xbox app for games and streaming, and Xbox published games.
And then another 5-10 years later they’ll phase that out and just be ‘Microsoft Gaming’ or somesuch branded, and the last traces of Xbox will be gone.
It’s already just a brand, Xbox is just their gaming brand. Xbox Game Pass isn’t limited to Xbox hardware. The first Xbox branded computers not made by Microsoft are already available (Asus ROG Xbox Ally). The real question is how long will Microsoft make hardware under the Xbox brand.
I wonder if this is a huge demotion for the AI guy. AI teams in Microsoft are “good” right now, I wonder if he fucked up in some way and they put him on xbox.
Yeah I don’t know. The knee jerk reaction Is “hey make Xbox have more AI”. She at least has the sense to have her first press release say “we’ll have no AI slop in our games” but we’ll see if that lasts.
CoD has been caught using AI art already.
The thing about that press release is that it fairly cleverly doesn’t say “no AI.” It says no slop. She’ll push AI, it’ll create slop (as always), but she’ll argue it isn’t slop and is actually great.
The term „AI art“ irks me, IMO it tries to legitimize the virtual theft that it’s based on by implying there‘s a creative, artistic process behind it. It‘s gotta be a lobbied term.
Yeah thats fair. Slop is more appropriate.
COD hasn’t been worth playing in ~12 years.
A silver lining is that the NVIDIA/OpenAI deal was cut by ~70% this week, so hopefully the reality of AI not being a panacea sets in for those who have been driving the prices up. If the planned data centers never actually get built, production will shift back and consumer pricing should adjust accordingly. The MBA class will keep trying to manipulate it artificially of course, but they’ll only be able to keep the ruse this far from reality for so long.
It’s not all bad. AI can make some great creative games with lots of soul. There will be hundreds.
This has to be sarcasm.
This is deffo bait.
Please add /s if you’re being sarcastic because otherwise you just look like a fool.
That’s an obvious joke.
You’d hope, but it’s 2026 and there are some people who fucking date AIs. And fuck them.
Soooooo yeahhhhh, clarification would be appreciated.
@[email protected] do you date ais?
Depends, who’s asking and what AI model are you based on? Pics.
Damn I was really banking on a “no” for the argument
Come on man, don’t be that guy. You’re better than that.
I mean the question got an answer, so either feeding the trolls, or popcorn moment.
… Either way I’ve got my popcorn.