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Xbox CFO Discusses Opportunities with AI, How Microsoft Measures Its Success in Games, and More

Can't wait for Sony to announce their own plans with AI in game development going forward so that we can all reply to a thread about how AI is amazing for the industry and not pretend, like we are doing today, that Microsoft is the devil for integrating the latest technologies into their pipeline.

Lets Go Come On Man GIF by filmeditor
 

NickFire

Member
Can't wait for Sony to announce their own plans with AI in game development going forward so that we can all reply to a thread about how AI is amazing for the industry and not pretend, like we are doing today, that Microsoft is the devil for integrating the latest technologies into their pipeline.

Lets Go Come On Man GIF by filmeditor
You might see a few change course. But I doubt it will be many. This will generally be universally hated like price hikes are.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
I agree Sony made sure to get compensation. But I do think they were forced to negotiate because they couldn't afford to piss off the Fornite audience. Just a hunch though.

On the other topic, I haven't really taken competition with PS+ into account. I'm not sure I agree that Sony would pass up revenue because of said competition since the games wouldn't be the same. But I might be underestimating how valued PS+ (with catalogues) are to their long term goals.

Remember this?

Electronic Arts' recent announcement of EA Access, a Netflix-style program for Xbox One that allows you to pay $5 per month for unlimited access to a library of games, caught some off guard because it was only confirmed for Microsoft's console. As it turns out, Sony considered this program, but declined because the company felt it did not offer a strong enough value for PlayStation gamers.

"We evaluated the EA Access subscription offering and decided that it does not bring the kind of value PlayStation customers have come to expect," a Sony representative told GameSpot in a statement originally obtained by Game Informer.


According to Sony, PlayStation fans are more interested in subscription plans that give them access to a wide range of services, unlike EA Access, which will only offer up Electronic Arts games. "PlayStation Plus memberships are up more than 200% since the launch of PlayStation 4, which shows that gamers are looking for memberships that offer a multitude of services, across various devices, for one low price," the representative said. "We don't think asking our fans to pay an additional $5 a month for this EA-specific program represents good value to the PlayStation gamer."



This is what I think they'd do to GamePass. Microsoft would have to REALLY do something big to make Sony change their minds on this. Getting out the hardware business could be a move that Sony would like to see from MS first. That would make it a 2 person console race with PC gaming as the open platform for neutral parties.

Long-term it may even be the best bet for MS too. Why deal with the hardware business when you can be a big publisher with a huge subscription service on all platforms?
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
Microsoft and Nintendo are the only two console makers who make an effort to publish games in a wide variety of genres and dedicate resources to non-AAA games. Games like Pentinent, Hi-Fi Rush, or even Pikmin for example are game experiences that have received wide acclaim and break from formulas that have traditionally been "safer" for publishers to get behind. Unfortunately, a large segment of this forum regards anything that isn't a derivative 3rd-person action/adventure game as not worth looking into.

This whole post is a lie. WOW!
 

NickFire

Member
Remember this?





This is what I think they'd do to GamePass. Microsoft would have to REALLY do something big to make Sony change their minds on this. Getting out the hardware business could be a move that Sony would like to see from MS first. That would make it a 2 person console race with PC gaming as the open platform for neutral parties.

Long-term it may even be the best bet for MS too. Why deal with the hardware business when you can be a big publisher with a huge subscription service on all platforms?
:messenger_tears_of_joy: - I already waved the white flag on the competition issue in the December PS+ essential thread. You're punching me while I'm on the ground and waiting for the bell.

You were right. Sony loves those catalogues versions so much they're trying to kill essential off for good. POWER WASH SIMULATOR! 33% price increase to give us POWER WASH SIMULATOR.
 

jumpship

Member
Can't wait for Sony to announce their own plans with AI in game development going forward so that we can all reply to a thread about how AI is amazing for the industry and not pretend, like we are doing today, that Microsoft is the devil for integrating the latest technologies into their pipeline.

Lets Go Come On Man GIF by filmeditor

Not just announced it's already here. Enjoy the video



More info on Sony ai in gaming here.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives

This is VERY important for people to recognize. If Klobrille is saying this on Twitter......you best believe the most hardcore are starting to loss faith in Phil and Xbox.

But he's right. If MS wants to be on PS and Nintendo so bad, then they are telling their audience that the Xbox console means nothing to them long term. All you need to do is listen and pay attention. MS is CLEARLY speaking to their hardcore audience here. They wouldn't say this so openly without knowing it'll hit all social media streams.
 
Microsoft and Nintendo are the only two console makers who make an effort to publish games in a wide variety of genres and dedicate resources to non-AAA games. Games like Pentinent, Hi-Fi Rush, or even Pikmin for example are game experiences that have received wide acclaim and break from formulas that have traditionally been "safer" for publishers to get behind. Unfortunately, a large segment of this forum regards anything that isn't a derivative 3rd-person action/adventure game as not worth looking into.

It’s not just a GAF thing, gamers in general prefer third person action adventure titles, which is fine. But you are right that it’s a problem when games of other genres are downplayed or hand waved and we see that plenty.

Those types of games are actually why I was so excited for the studios MS bought. They don’t make bloated third person games that are focus tested to check all the boxes. They make AA games, racing games, RPGs, strategy games, etc.
 

Zathalus

Member
Soon you will be out of a job. This is not something you should be bragging about.
Oh no! It's not like I don't know how to read trends and actively work with ML and AI services as part of my daily job. Oh wait, I do.

It's amazingly easy for any competent developer to pivot towards leveraging AI tooling to improve your job and output.

What else are you going to do? Complain about the inevitable march of human progress? Because that has worked literally never.
 

demigod

Member
Oh no! It's not like I don't know how to read trends and actively work with ML and AI services as part of my daily job. Oh wait, I do.

It's amazingly easy for any competent developer to pivot towards leveraging AI tooling to improve your job and output.

What else are you going to do? Complain about the inevitable march of human progress? Because that has worked literally never.
AI isn’t there to improve your job. It’s there to replace you.
 

Zathalus

Member
AI isn’t there to improve your job. It’s there to replace you.
It's nowhere good enough to do that yet. Like hilariously not good enough. AutoGPT can do great things, but thinking it can wholesale replace the entire developer stack in the next decade? Including any related roles? No.

It is eventually going to happen, but by the time it completely eliminates all developer or DevOps roles I'll either be dead or retired. At the moment the smart developer utilizes it like any other tool and it can be very effective.

Unless AGI comes online, but that will create a whole other host of problems. Job security may very well be a minor concern then.
 

MacReady13

Member
Fuck is it with Microsoft and thinking they can make "millions" of people developers?!? They think they can get billions of gamers to play their games and now they think there are millions of devs out there, all to push this notion that AI is this great saviour... Soulless fucking money hungry company that cares nothing for its people.
 

demigod

Member
It's nowhere good enough to do that yet. Like hilariously not good enough. AutoGPT can do great things, but thinking it can wholesale replace the entire developer stack in the next decade? Including any related roles? No.

It is eventually going to happen, but by the time it completely eliminates all developer or DevOps roles I'll either be dead or retired. At the moment the smart developer utilizes it like any other tool and it can be very effective.

Unless AGI comes online, but that will create a whole other host of problems. Job security may very well be a minor concern then.
Didn’t say its there to replace the entire developer. It’s there to cut back on employees needed.
 

Zathalus

Member
Didn’t say its there to replace the entire developer. It’s there to cut back on employees needed.
Then I'm not worried. I'm quite senior, work in a country that has firm employee protection laws, and my sector has strict legislative and security concerns.

AI is eventually going to probably take over everything and once an AGI comes online, well who the hell knows? Complaining about it is not going to stop it, nor will burying your head in the sand.
 

Taur007

Member
If they put Sea of Thieves on PS5 I would buy it day one. I'm not buying a new Xbox and/or signing up to gamepass to play it.
Why not though? That's literally the point of xcloud, just stream it on any laptop, phone or tablet, by the time you reach 40$ (current price for the game) you'd been have played the game + others (if wanted) for 2 entire months already, probably 3 since you'll get the 1st month for a dollar. You know this game won't ever come to PS so why create a hypothetical when you can literally actually play the game? It's almost like you guys make your life harder by finding any reason NOT to support GP.
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
Then I'm not worried. I'm quite senior, work in a country that has firm employee protection laws, and my sector has strict legislative and security concerns.

AI is eventually going to probably take over everything and once an AGI comes online, well who the hell knows? Complaining about it is not going to stop it, nor will burying your head in the sand.
Jumping in here mid-conversation. You may be safe, but thousands of developers and other studio employees would be losing their job if Microsoft's plan is to automate game-development tasks via AI.

That is a concern.

Then their implementations so far have been hilariously bad. I shared an example earlier in the thread:



They 100% used something like Google Translate here, and with no insight or a human to add context, this could become the norm.
 

Thirty7ven

Banned
It's nowhere good enough to do that yet. Like hilariously not good enough. AutoGPT can do great things, but thinking it can wholesale replace the entire developer stack in the next decade? Including any related roles? No.

It is eventually going to happen, but by the time it completely eliminates all developer or DevOps roles I'll either be dead or retired. At the moment the smart developer utilizes it like any other tool and it can be very effective.

Unless AGI comes online, but that will create a whole other host of problems. Job security may very well be a minor concern then.

The thing about A.I is that the better it becomes the faster it becomes better. Whole “it’s just a tool” is true sure but… to the right person you’re just a tool too. The thing about saying it’s just this tool as if it’s a better hammer is that a good hammer doesn’t improve hammers.

You’re thinking this is going to be a slow gradual evolution when they have already surpassed milestones ahead of schedule by years and the more that happens the faster it will happen.

First it will get to the point where as MS guy says, one dude using an A.I will be able to the work in the same timeframe it used to take fifty guys to do. Is that exciting? Of course. Will it simply create new jobs? We hope so. But the guys who spent twenty years how to code clean will be made to look ancient in the not too distant future.
 

Zathalus

Member
Jumping in here mid-conversation. You may be safe, but thousands of developers and other studio employees would be losing their job if Microsoft's plan is to automate game-development tasks via AI.

That is a concern.

Then their implementations so far have been hilariously bad. I shared an example earlier in the thread:



They 100% used something like Google Translate here, and with no insight or a human to add context, this could become the norm.

Of course it's a concern. Not just developers are going to loose jobs, but a huge number of other industries will be impacted as well. It's also an inevitability, and not just for the gaming industry either.

It would also eventually lead to games that are simply not currently possible. The possibilities are kind of mind boggling frankly, especially if AGI comes online. It's going to take a while to get there however.
 

LordCBH

Member
This is VERY important for people to recognize. If Klobrille is saying this on Twitter......you best believe the most hardcore are starting to loss faith in Phil and Xbox.

But he's right. If MS wants to be on PS and Nintendo so bad, then they are telling their audience that the Xbox console means nothing to them long term. All you need to do is listen and pay attention. MS is CLEARLY speaking to their hardcore audience here. They wouldn't say this so openly without knowing it'll hit all social media streams.

But what is Timdog saying? I only listen to Timdog.
 

T-0800

Member
Why not though? That's literally the point of xcloud, just stream it on any laptop, phone or tablet, by the time you reach 40$ (current price for the game) you'd been have played the game + others (if wanted) for 2 entire months already, probably 3 since you'll get the 1st month for a dollar. You know this game won't ever come to PS so why create a hypothetical when you can literally actually play the game? It's almost like you guys make your life harder by finding any reason NOT to support GP.

I have an Xbox One but to play Sea of Thieves I need to either subscribe to Gamepass (which I have no interest in) or buy the game then pay to play it online. I'm not doing either. I already pay for PS Plus and I'm not going to start paying for another subscription on a machine I hardly ever use. If MS were serious about letting people play anywhere they would start releasing their games everywhere.
 

UltimaKilo

Gold Member
There is no way MS can succeed this way. They NEED to able to sale hardware at some point. It can't mainly be about subscribers. This is a losing situation. Tesla, Apple, Samsung, etc are where they are because they can get people to buy their hardware. Then after that they stay to spend money in the ecosystem.

Recurring revenue is the golden ticket in business. 1. Recurring 2. Repeat

I understand the vision, but they’re too scattered not building it in one place. Apple Music is successful because of the hardware that came first.
 
That answer about why they are in gaming is the root of all their problems. It's about taking share. That's it.

No heart.
Microsoft is, on a fundamental level, a software company. They are not an entertainment company. They are iterative, not creative. The company ethos is well tuned to churning out endless iterations of Windows and Office, but completely incorrect for producing creative content like video games.
 

RiccochetJ

Gold Member
I do sincerely hope that it will improve QA processes as games get more complex. Being able to deploy a million AI users to your game each with different personas running 24 hours a day through your current build could be industry changing. But that would also probably destroy the entire QA industry as we know it and it would look completely different in a couple years.
 
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