Happy birthday, Xbox! Here’s to 25 years of human-made entertainment, and 25 more of way less developers and way more generative AI.
That’s what CEO Asha Sharma seems to be insinuating with her words today in a reflection on 25 years of Xbox, of which she has been a part of for less than one. And yet, her impact has been tremendous, with a massive overhaul this year in her “reset” involving the layoffs of thousands of workers to get the business profitable again.
And it sounds like even more layoffs are to come. We already know that, but the number could be bigger, judging by the tone of her social media post where she champions new technology that we haven’t even begun to feel the full effects of.
“Throughout human history, the scale of what we could create was determined by the people, capital, and resources we could command,” Sharma said. “That relationship is beginning to break. A single person will soon be able to wield capabilities that once required entire nations. A small team will be able to build worlds that today demand hundreds of developers and hundreds of millions of dollars.”
How else would a “a single person” or “a small team” build games that normally takes hundreds of people besides cutting costs and using generative AI technology in the stead of those who made games before? And where will those hundreds of people go when they are no longer needed? To the unemployment line, of course!
“While modern games demonstrate the heights of human craft in ways unimaginable just decades ago, the cost, resources, and risk required to create them have grown just as dramatically,” she said. “As a result, too many ideas never become games, and too many games fall short of what their creators imagined. For decades, this has been the unavoidable tradeoff of ambition. We must change this.”
Sharma said she believes “the future of gaming will look more like its beginning, when a small team with a big idea could change how the world plays.” Take from all of this what you will, but what I’m taking from it is she’s saying, in many words, “we will be using AI tools and replacing people with them, so get used to it.” React accordingly.
