In a new panel at the Paley International Council Summit, Phil Spencer sat down with Double Fine Studio Head Tim Schafer to discuss a whole host of gaming-related topics - and the Xbox boss had some interesting things to say about AI use and developer creativity over at Microsoft's gaming division.
Despite the company's continued push of AI with the likes of its Copilot tool, Phil insists that AI use within Xbox is "up to the teams", ultimately. Phil also said that "any top-down mandate is not really a path to success", and here's a longer quote on this from the panel (via IGN):
"On the creative side, I really leave it up to the teams, [...] I have found that creative teams will use tools that make their job easier when it makes their job easier, and any top-down mandate that 'Thou must use a certain tool'...is not really a path to success. I look at the teams, and we make tools available, and I kind of let it organically percolate."
Phil also noted that Xbox's current use of AI "is much more operational than it is in the creative space" - referring to things like the moderation of Xbox Live as one way the team uses it right now. The Xbox boss then said that he could see it being adopted in game production for things like prototyping new projects — speeding up "the pace of creativity" — but this largely remains hypothetical for now.
In another section of the panel, Phil addressed the autonomy of dev teams within Xbox Game Studios and how much creative control they have; something that's now a hot topic following this week's Bloomberg report on profit targets within Microsoft Gaming. The Xbox boss said that "the creativity of the teams is the most important thing and the thing that we need to protect and foster", going on to admit that "we don't always succeed at that". Here's another extended quote from the panel (via PC Gamer):
"I think it's the most brave thing a team can do, whether you're making a movie or a television show, to go and put something out for the internet to evaluate, judge and comment on, [...] Sometimes I scratch my head on why anybody wants to go do that, because the internet's not always a nice place for the discourse around things that have been created, but nurturing and protecting creative teams that want to go take risks. We don't always succeed at that, but I think it is kind of the root of any media industry, the creative nugget."
We're not sure exactly how much power Phil has over at Xbox right now amidst these reports of MS aiming for higher profit margins - but as the Microsoft Gaming CEO, he surely has some sway. Here's hoping he keeps fighting the good fight and allowing the Xbox Game Studios teams to remain in ultimate control of their projects.