SEGAvangelist
Member
Watch the art get leaked and it all looks like Concord.
Jason Schreier: Xbox Executives Were Blown Away by an Upcoming Game. Then They Canceled It
- Thread starter HeisenbergFX4
- Start date
Nydius
Member
I'd probably add Forza Horizon and Fallout/TES to your list but, sadly, you're right. Instead of capitalizing on the trove of IPs they now own, they're just going to focus on the "safe" bets that rake in the most recurring revenue.
nowhat
Member
I just asked ChatGPT to elaborate on that.
Certainly. The phrase "The AI era is going to be painful" often refers to the complex, disruptive, and potentially difficult societal, economic, and psychological challenges that arise from the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence technologies. Here's a deeper look at what people generally mean by it:
1. Job Displacement & Economic Shifts
AI can automate many tasks currently done by humans—ranging from factory work to white-collar jobs like accounting, customer support, or even legal analysis.- Pain Point: Millions of jobs may be lost or fundamentally changed.
- Impact: Mass unemployment, rising inequality, and economic instability, especially in sectors slow to adapt.
- Example: Automation in logistics (e.g., autonomous trucks) potentially displacing millions of drivers.
2. Skills Gap & Rapid Adaptation Pressure
The rapid development of AI demands new skills—such as data science, prompt engineering, and human-AI collaboration.- Pain Point: People unable to retrain quickly may be left behind.
- Impact: Social stress, educational inequality, and generational divides.
- Example: Workers mid-career may find their skills suddenly obsolete.
3. Ethical & Social Challenges
AI introduces new ethical dilemmas, including:- Deepfakes, misinformation, and algorithmic bias.
- Surveillance and privacy erosion.
- Weaponization of AI (autonomous weapons, cyberattacks).
- Pain Point: Trust breakdown in institutions and technology itself.
- Impact: Social unrest, political instability, and civil liberties erosion.
4. Psychological & Existential Risks
Humans may face increased stress from:- Working alongside or competing with AI.
- Loss of meaning as AI encroaches on creative fields and decision-making.
- Pain Point: Mental health crises, feelings of irrelevance.
- Impact: Identity crises, increased anxiety, and philosophical unease about human purpose.
5. Power Concentration & Inequality
AI development is largely dominated by a few corporations and nations.- Pain Point: Widening power gaps between tech elites and the broader public.
- Impact: Geopolitical tensions, monopoly power, and democratic erosion.
6. Speed of Change
Perhaps the greatest source of "pain" is simply the speed at which AI is advancing:- New models and tools are emerging faster than legal, ethical, and cultural systems can adapt.
- Pain Point: Overwhelmed institutions and constant need for adaptation.
- Impact: Policy lag, constant uncertainty, and social instability.
Summary
If you'd like, I can also share perspectives on how some think we can reduce this pain. Would you like that?
...would you like the pain to be reduced? AI can do that.
Judge Magister
Member
Blown away?! Yeah, sure...
![L*][*N*K](/data/avatars/m/842/842515.jpg?1750247637){kind=avatar}
SlimySnake
Flashless at the Golden Globes
No one cancels good games people. If it was so amazing he wouldve put it out there to show everyone how good he's doing.
diffusionx
Gold Member
Yea, fair. I will point out that both FH and the Bethesda games have very long tails and/or are liveshit. So that's what all these games have in common. Maybe Grounded.I'd probably add Forza Horizon and Fallout/TES to your list but, sadly, you're right. Instead of capitalizing on the trove of IPs they now own, they're just going to focus on the "safe" bets that rake in the most recurring revenue.
Games like Outer World, Doom, Indiana Jones, all this sort of shit, it's just not in the cards for them going forward. They cancelled the ones farther out but I don't expect these studios to be around much after they release their games. They're not going to be spending nine figures on games that come out, people subscribe to GamePass for a month for, and then move on. I think this is obvious but I am not sure people are picking up on it.
They obviously did that too, in the end there's probably other projects that either already made money or were closer to it that survived this one though. Or other factors played into decisions that weren't so - objective.
March Climber
Member
This is false. We have seen evidence of this before. Unseen64 has a website full of them.
Sometimes it just comes down to money
Angry_Megalodon
Member
Imagine to believe that an XBOX exec has the least idea of what an awesome game actually is.
Moridianae
Member
I would say that Sneaker has demonstrated his credibility many times over.
He's knowledgeable, great to converse with and if he says things are far worse than the insanity that was yesterday, I absolutely believe him.
I don't doubt that the MMO was very good, but being able to stand toe to toe with WoW or FFXIV would be a feat indeed.
WoW has always been popular and I think(haven't played in some time) that Final Fantasy XIV is still considered excellent(and it was when I played it).
He's knowledgeable, great to converse with and if he says things are far worse than the insanity that was yesterday, I absolutely believe him.
I don't doubt that the MMO was very good, but being able to stand toe to toe with WoW or FFXIV would be a feat indeed.
WoW has always been popular and I think(haven't played in some time) that Final Fantasy XIV is still considered excellent(and it was when I played it).
KenaiPhoenix
Member
Yeah, I aint buying this.
They just want to sound like they actually have good ideas and all. Probably there wasnt anything of value(beyond peoples job ofc) lost yesterday, which is sad, but MS and Xbox has been on a steady decline for years.
They just want to sound like they actually have good ideas and all. Probably there wasnt anything of value(beyond peoples job ofc) lost yesterday, which is sad, but MS and Xbox has been on a steady decline for years.
Elginer
Member
Isnt always
Yea - particularly given this round obviously had nothing to do with AI whatsoever.
Ass of Can Whooping
Member
Keep telling yourself that my man
splattered
Member
Naw it would have been multiplatform
Kenneth Haight
Gold Member
JohnnyFootball
GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
That makes sense for a normally run company like Apple.
This is Microsoft we are talking about.
Know the difference.
HeisenbergFX4
Member
Exactly why I led off saying S SneakersSO was the first to say it, I put more faith in what he says here than Jason
ProtoByte
Weeb Underling
Definitely not enough to justify the continued investment of an already 7 year project when the rest of the organization is also bleeding money. They're investing less resource into Call of Duty ffs.
I think there would be a lot of sense in canning another long-term dedicated MMO. I do not personally think the market infrastructure is there given what's necessary in terms of investment to make a contemporary MMO that justifies a reset for the player bases of remaining titles, let alone pulling people away from existing live services and new AAAs.
SE has explicitly said that FF14 is losing its organizational lustre. Whatever ESO is doing is definitely not enough to push against the tide at MS. They're lucky that MS bought them in the first place and was dumb enough to continue the investment, because Zenimax was on the ropes anyway, and would've cancelled the project much earlier or released a quagmire and then shut down the studio years ago.
apple_of_enlightenment
Member
I heard they cancelled it cos someone told them Schreier liked it.
Arsic
Loves his juicy stink trail scent
Exactly. The last game Phil Spencer had a Boner for was 33 immortals, and that shit is a joke.
GHG
Member
Nobody cancels the good games, but at the same time they all somehow manage to ensure they release all the bad games.
DenchDeckard
Moderated wildly
More great news.
Gg xbox.
Gg xbox.
Topher
Identifies as young
You sure?
Microsoft CEO says up to 30% of the company's code was written by AI | TechCrunch
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that 20%-30% of code inside the company's repositories is "written by software," meaning AI.
techcrunch.com
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March Climber
Member
While we are not sure if it was going to be a fully fledged MMO (especially now that some people on GAF suddenly don't consider Dune: Awakening to be an MMO after it's success), I think ZOS had earned their chance, and their dev time, to make a good game.
"ESO has made nearly $2 billion lifetime and has no plans to stop expanding its world and story...making 15 million per month in revenue for over a decade."
The Elder Scrolls Online has made nearly $2 billion in its lifetime, 9 years after the big comeback that doubled its player count overnight
After 10 years, TESO is an even bigger financial success than I realized.
Just to be clear here...this is the game that has them 'on the ropes' that you want to quagmire and shut down?
Are you sure we are discussing the same Zenimax Online Studios? Or are you thinking about Starfield and other studios at Zenimax? Two different entities if so.
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EverydayBeast
ChatGPT 0.001
The role of game development is creating games, and releasing them to people now there's a group of people basically canceling everything, I say release it and let the people decide if it's resonates.
100%.
If you are 'more efficient' you wouldn't be killing projects as the first port of call(let alone projects you don't have any people employed in). Firing people - sure - but killing projects is done for one reason only - saving money to hit a particular $ KPI (thus, not efficiency related).
And of course the PR - I've been through one of these at my own work this year, and of course AI PR was part of that story too (and you can take a guess how much it really contributed).
I'm not saying AI won't do this (and likely much much worse) - I'm just saying it (mostly) hasn't even started yet. This is just penny counters using it to save money 'now'.
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Topher
Identifies as young
You think the AI PR is bullshit? Yeah....I can see that. Trying to make the most out of the situation. That sounds like Microsoft alright
crunchyBiscuits
Member
Dayum, Phil is cold: won't let me play the game anymore? Fine, you're canceled
Sucks that something that sounded like it had potential won't see the light of day. Isn't the first time for something like this to happen in the industry... Hope that the affected staff are able to find new jobs to support themselves+families
Sucks that something that sounded like it had potential won't see the light of day. Isn't the first time for something like this to happen in the industry... Hope that the affected staff are able to find new jobs to support themselves+families
SneakersSO
Gold Member
The only silver-lining to this, and this is just a hope beyond hope, is that this project's leadership and affected team members can exit quietly and simply chase this idea on their own terms.
Grildon Tundy
Member
You just know Jason gets excited when there are these big lay-offs. "Payday, baby!" he thinks, as he Tweets and assures them he's on their side.
ProtoByte
Weeb Underling
They had 7 years.
2 billion in what? Profits? Or revenues? It's more likely to be the latter. It sounds like a lot of money, but over more than a decade, it really isn't. How much has the studio and adjoining support cost to run in those 10 years? It's obviously on a whole different level, but in a similar time frame, GTAO has done that by 3-4x in actual profit. And the same studio managed to release RDR2 and RDRO in the interim."ESO has made nearly $2 billion lifetime and has no plans to stop expanding its world and story...making 15 million per month in revenue for over a decade."
The Elder Scrolls Online has made nearly $2 billion in its lifetime, 9 years after the big comeback that doubled its player count overnight
After 10 years, TESO is an even bigger financial success than I realized.www.pcgamer.com
Just to be clear here...this is the game that has them 'on the ropes' that you want to quagmire and shut down?
If you're not at that level, you cannot justify literal 10 year projects at MSFT.
They're not two different entities, ZOS was owned by Zenimax. Zenimax overall sold to Microsoft because they saw the writing on the wall with the overall organization. Yes, I do believe that by the late 2020s, there would've been some existential events for that company had Microsoft not bought them. With or without ESO. There are things that exist way outside of it.
Nydius
Member
I took a peek at the comments and holy hell the Xbox proselytizers and/or reality deniers are responding in force. So many delusional takes calling the cuts "good for the industry" and praising AI for "making development tasks easier" and even trying to compare these cuts to when Musk slashed most of X's staff, as if Microsoft and X is a valid comparison.
Panajev2001a
GAF's Pleasant Genius
Some companies believe making shitty decision and paying / organising astroturfers to push a narrative is almost the same and spending to deliver better outputs.