you are wrong either way when you consider that the "remaining 1600 planned layoffs" are not related to the previous growth of the studios, and also when you consider that these layoffs have nothing to do with this growth
I never claimed layoffs couldn't be related to the growth of the studios, so thank you for putting words in my mouth. My only point of contention was the carelessly quoted 40% growth claim that made it seem like the 20% reduction is justified, as if the reduction was appropriately proportioned. That last part is essential, so please reread it if you wish to further dispute my statements. It is the statement made in this context that I called a lie, since the repercussions of sharing that claim create a fictional reasoning that has no basis in facts, at least the ones we know of. I make this claim because you added a source to MinervaX76's context "it seems they are going through studios one by one and mostly downsizing to what they were at the time of them being acquired", but never refuting or adding nuance.
What you have shared about certain studios is certainly a partial truth since you are claiming a fact about ALL studios while using the evidence of SOME. Yes, that 40% average growth number might be true for some studios, but not necessarily all. You are forgetting Xbox also has all of Activision Blizzard King studios, which is a significatly larger group of studios, yet the 10% layoffs (half of the 20% reduction in Xbox employees) was disproportionately towards the other groups, specifically Zenimax. And more specifically to iD, that studio was simply in more vulnerable state because it was in the stage of pitching projects, i.e. in the eyes of Xbox management, laying off people in that studio wouldn't have resulted in any loss of investment, in terms of a game being developed. And lastly, we are forgetting the most important thing, games have become significantly more complex than they were a decade ago, so even the fact that the studios have grown isn't necessarily wrong by itself, and should only be considered so when technology has improved to reduce that load or we have clear evidence of loss of investment, as in the case of South of Midnight or Perfect Dark projects.
@Banjo- Oh boy! I wouldn't be making comments like this one, since it would make it seem like I am a more rude person than I truly am, but somehow it seems like you have taken things to your heart. I said it previously and I do so again, you didn't add context to your agreement with MinervaX76's comment in your original comment and that is what I pointed out. I called the statement a lie, not you or MinervaX76 a liar. People can share a half-lie without realising it, since that half lie is often based on partial truths. Being told you are wrong doesn't make you less of a person. But since you likely ignored that difference, I would have to clear the blame you have place on me, which seems to be more out of spite than anything else. So here we go again.
betterthings wrote:
I cannot possibly believe this damage control that uses fiction to weave stories and ignorance to the remaining 1600 planned layoffs.
It does not seem that it's me who is shifting goal posts.
Now you are just conjuring bullsh1t by claiming I am the one shifting goals. For the purpose of shifting goals, one has to have two have an initial one and then introduce some change, which wasn't present in the original statement. In that exact quote, I only laid my initial statement about the specific layoffs at iD. I never changed my stance from that or tried to generalise the statement for any other studios that experienced layoffs. So no, I never shifted goals. I gave factual evidence for everything I shared about iD, so if you wish to disprove me, do so by sharing factual evidence against mine instead of speculation.
@Banjo- your previous comment corroborated MinervaX76's exact phrasing "Phill increased all of Xbox by 40% despite lacking money flow" without adding any nuance/context that you did just now. You are shifting goal posts here mate. I called that exact statement (nothing more and nothing less) a lie and I stand by it.
No she isn't referring to the whole Xbox division. She particularly specified Platforms division, not the rest of Xbox. You may refer to their organisational structure if you have confusion with division names.
@FreasurePlanten Thanks. Only if Xbox lays out a multi-studio strategy for the development of the iD Tech engine, these other studios could then help with the engine's development. It all rests on whether Xbox funds the development of iD Tech, something they haven't committed to even with this debunking, instead of opting for short-term cheaper solutions like shifting to Unreal Engine. I want to emphasise this isn't a likely possibility, since such a multi-studio commitment to engine development would have required them to keep the engine developers that they just laid off. The current strategy seems to become profitable quickly, likely to make it easier to fund key projects without looming risks of failures. I don't mind that strategy, but I don't agree with what they did to iD.
Don't worry guys, we didn't fire EVERYONE at iD Software's Richardson studio, we only fired MOST of the people.
And about the people who working on iD Tech engine who were fired, don't worry, we have distraction in the form of dozens of people working on forks of the iD Tech engine at other studios like MachineGames, Arkane Studios(the one we couldn't touch because of French laws), etc.
And don't you remember the iD Software's Frankfurt studios we couldn't touch during these layoffs because of their absurd European worker protection laws? We didn't lay off anyone there YET. Our plan of laying off the additional 1600 workers as per our announced plan couldn't possibly include the Frankfurt studio, right? That would be absurdity on another level!
136 employees were laid off at iD Software Richardson, including Director of Engine Technology, 2 Principal Engine Programmers, and 3 Senior Engine Programmers, among many others. The total studio size was roughly around 200 pre-layoffs with 165 employees registered with Communications Workers of America union.
I don't remember who reported it (I forgot to save the data), but only 4-5 people remain who directly work on the iD Tech engine at their headquaters in Richardson, Texas. (I will update the source when I see it again)
I don't believe in total doom and gloom. iD is resilient and will definitively make some great games in the future. But I cannot possibly believe this damage control that uses fiction to weave stories and ignorance to the remaining 1600 planned layoffs. If you read the Jez Corden article that "supposedly debunks fake news", he is saying he cannot possibly imagine Xbox sunsetting iD Tech, he isn't suggesting, in any sort of manner, that he has a source which confirms Xbox has any plans to make maintain or expand iD Tech through iD Software.
Phill increased all of Xbox by 40% despite lacking money flow
That is a lie. @Banjo- shared the source, but even he was quick to jump to conclusion, without reading the text properly. This is what Asha Sharma wrote in that post:
Our platform teams are 40% larger than they were at the start of this generation
Platform teams consist of many teams that handle the platform side of Xbox, including the ones maintaining XboxOS, Xbox Store on Consoles, Xbox Backwards Compatibility team (that was laid off), team that handles Xbox GamePass third-party partnerships, Xbox Series SDK team, etc. In essence, this does not include any gaming studio Xbox owns.
Imagine someone telling you a couple of years ago that Microsoft would be the ones to gut iD instead of supporting them.
I could reasonably understand their decisions elsewhere, Double Fine, Compulsion, and Arkane weren't making profitable games, Undead Labs has taken too long and too much investment even if they release a good game in the future, Elder Scrolls Online and Fallout 76 weren't raking in the kind of money their franchise enables, etc.
But iD? Doom The Dark Ages might not received the same status Eternal did, but it had reached 3 million players in the first week, way more than Assassin's Creed Shadows in the same period with 1/5th the developer count. The only thing that killed its revenue was day one access to GamePass, which even Call of Duty could not prevent, so why hold that for iD.
Just to add that reportedly half of id is being laid off primarily from the programming / coding side which sounds like idTech to me. But we will have to wait and see.
Sad times.
I think you were right but we both underestimated the impact. 96 studio employees plus 40 remote workers were cut at iD Software, which includes the following members directly working on the iD Tech Engine
Director of Engine Technology
Principal Engine Programmer (x2)
Principal Full Stack Engineer
Principal Tools Programmer
Senior Engine Programmer (x3)
Senior Programmer
Engine Programmer
Tools Programmer (x2)
That is 136 employees laid off. The total studio size was 165 employees pre-layoffs. This doesn't look like sunsetting only the iD Tech game engine to me, but iD Software itself seems to have been reduced to a support studio.
I would like to know the real number of layoffs at Id and if it's because they are going to use IW engine instead of Id Tech.
96 studio employees plus 40 remote workers were cut at iD Software, which includes the following members directly working on the iD Tech Engine
Director of Engine Technology
Principal Engine Programmer (x2)
Principal Full Stack Engineer
Principal Tools Programmer
Senior Engine Programmer (x3)
Senior Programmer
Engine Programmer
Tools Programmer (x2)
That is 136 employees laid off. The total studio size was 165 employees pre-layoffs.
As for the fate of the engine, the current rumors are Xbox is only going to extend the use of iD Tech 8 fork that MachineGames is working with for their future game rather than the potential iD Tech 9 iD Sofware would have developed for its future game. In simple terms, this could be the end of iD Tech game engine.
@SodaPop6548 @Fiendish-Beaver @Savex I would recommend watching the Rebel Wolves developer interview with Friends Per Second podcast. They go through a lot of gameplay aspects that couldn't be covered otherwise in a single playthrough. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2cphQKh3dw&t=3982s
It is sad to see how they gutted one of their best studios for short-term gains. I am not a Doom fan myself, but a fan of their game engine and their custom versions, such as one used in the beautiful Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. May those fired engineers build something equally remarkable in the future.
@themightyant While these slides are good to understand where the industry at large stands, it seems like they made their decisions based on industry trends alone, rather than looking where their core competence is and then expanding from that.
I don't understand how people deem these individuals as industry experts. You cannot make another Roblox, another Fortnite, another Candy Crush, or another Minecraft. These things become what they are because the studio, the development and the tools were structured in a particular way from the very beginning. What Xbox is doing right now is the Ubisoft play of turning every game loot and grind and later Sony's play into live-service concords. Hell, even Roblox is built using a custom engine, a lesson I hoped they would at least take from it.
@carlos82 @Fiendish-Beaver @themightyant I see the 1 billion daily user number as nothing more than a whistle to the investors. In fact, the whole letter, seems to be written with intention that investors see it and realise the new CEO has finally cleaned house, the future only looks brighter from now, you can come and invest again.
Im not really a fan of satellla or sharma, they are both more focused on money than the product. If a product males money its therefore better, despite all the issues with that statement.
Capcom should be the north star for all gaming companies with its 12th straight profitable year, yet all western gaming executives try to game short term profits.
I'm reading that as she wants more games like Candy Crush and to further monetise Minecraft making it more a platform like Roblox. Neither of which are what I want to hear.
Initially, I didn't want to judge her before she made any major decisions for Xbox. But, seeing all this now, I think she wants forever games with user creation to delegate labor away from costly developers. Name one gaming executive who didn't have that idea before!?
5% is actually very reasonable when all costs are considered imo, it’s one reason it’s so popular.
I was actually talking about the organisational level where 5% of billions is quite unreasonable cost, especially when vertical integration can easily lower the cost as well as the dependency.
Just to add that reportedly half of id is being laid off primarily from the programming / coding side which sounds like iD Tech to me.
Sadly, I think someone only saw an excel sheet with the number of iD Tech engineers and the number of games made with the engine to decide the layoffs. They didn't see the technology in hand, how well received the games were, or even looked at the only successful timed exclusive Xbox had in the recent past, i.e. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Essentially, I wished for iD Tech to become to Xbox what RE Engine is to Capcom, especially since they have already build the most modern technologies in the engine (performant path tracing, environmental distruction, hybrid lighting and shadows, etc.). And it could've been both profitable and objectively better when compared to Unreal, if moved from the studio level to the organisational level.
This will lead to a stagnation of innovation and creativity, back to making the same games over and over again I guess. No more Dishonored is a crime in of itself.
I don't think Asha has in any way suggested they won't create new IPs. Rather, her last statement, few weeks ago, suggested Xbox should keep creating new IPs for consistent growth.
Dishonored is certainly a loss. But it was also a franchise that never made profits. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is the only game I know in the recent past that was a major success in the immersive-sim genre, so there is some hope they would do something similar but not necessarily Dishonored.
Yes. It's a HUGE undertaking. But software developers have to do this from time to time just to get away from dealing with inefficient spaghetti code, and outdated engine design structures.
I believe a more sensible approach will be to keep the current game in development, Elder Scrolls VI I think with their current engine, but switch to idTech for the future game in production, Fallout I think. The reason I suggest idTech is how it was used in the Indiana Jones and the Great Circle with the world design, performance and variety all rendered in a somewhat open world landscape. Whatever upgrades they need for their games could be made to idTech and evolve it in a similar manner to CryEngine. The reason I am against Unreal is because that would require revenue sharing, which is a huge loss for tentpole franchises like Elder Scrolls and Fallout.
The veteran staff were then busy trying to get new hires up to speed with the engine and weren't able to focus on the actual work. It wasn't helped that the studio had such poor staff retention that they were constantly having to retrain new staff to do this over and over and again. That's ultimately a key reason why Halo Infinite was late, over budget, and incomplete at launch.
...
Using idTech would just be the same issue. It doesn't matter how good the engine is if new hires can't use it. It takes months to learn new tools properly, and years to master them.
I think the timeline matters here more than the conclusion. Xbox hadn't bought Bethesda Studio when Halo Infinite was in development, so the 343's options were either to rely on their custom engine or go for the most generic one. Now, things are different. If Xbox moves multiple franchises to engine such as idTech, it can easily create a large enough group of developers working with idTech. Many of such studios are based in US, so sharing knowledge and staff when necessary wouldn't be difficult either. The examples you gave, of course, are valid at the individual studios level, but a publisher as big and Microsoft can easily get multiple studios to make the switch and help each other in the process.
They should turn Halo into a multi studio effort like Call of Duty is, but with reduced frequency of a new game every 3 years.A multi studio effort will help Halo evolve from its peak in the Bungie era, even if we will get some misses sometimes, until they find what clicks with the modern audience.
I will Pre-order the Standard Edition in November, before the release date, just so I get the pre-order bonus, which Rockstar won't likely let you purchase afterwards. And when I replay the game the second time, I will definitively add the Ultimate Edition Upgrade.
If like Red Dead Redemption 2, Rockstar didn't allow an Ultimate Edition path, I would've directly purchased the Ultimate Edition in one go.
@Banjo- Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, an exceptional game visually, was built on idTech 7. So the engine can be adapted to other games beyond Doom.
I think @TrollOfWar is on point when questioning why Microsoft relied on AMD to develop its hardware, even for Helix [1][2], whereas Sony was and still is more involved in shaping the PlayStation hardware and software. You can see it even in the development of PSSR, which according to Digital Foundry is better than AMD FSR4 in some specific scenarios [3]. @themightyant @Godot25 Sony reduced the cost to produce PlayStation 5 over the years with multiple revisions [4], while Xbox didn't, something that could've reduced the impact of the current crisis on Microsoft's hardware offering.
@McKeownPlayz I don't think she's inheriting the worst of Xbox business. Instead, the first-party software pipeline is the best as it has ever been, comparable or surpassing its Xbox 360 years. That software offering was the major reason why Xbox declined near the end of Xbox 360 (when they were shipping more Kinect experiences than games), Xbox One (due to lack of consistent great first party or third party exclusives), and the beginning of Xbox Series X|S (due to no day-one system seller and continued lack of great first party exclusives). However, she is definitely inheriting Xbox at the worst time possible, the problem being the number of years it requires to make any changes to the hardware (both current or future). So she is bound by those hardware constraints that will remain fixed for at least the next 2 years.
@Banjo- @MrStark It is a relief that someone at the head of a company understands the depth of the problem she faces. We might not like the solutions she might come up with, but we can trust she will do everything in her power to get Xbox out of this mess.
@Godot25 I think Matt Booty's tenure was shaped by Phil's love of small studios and a big success of Game Pass was to lower the cost of production through plenty of smaller dedicated games like that of Double Fine's. I believe (but I could be wrong) that Matt would've communicated the same to Asha.
@PsBoxSwitchOwner The RAM used in commodity hardware like Xbox or PlayStation is not the same as the one used in Azure data centers, i.e. it is not interchangeable. However, they certainly didn't reserve much RAM for Xbox when compared to Sony who were even prepared for discounting their hardware further during the last holiday season.
@Balaam_ @Banjo- This seems like a different approach from what Phil and Sarah had, at least how she is shifting focus away from $1000 consoles. I think she is suggesting the Project Helix won't end up being a single premium device as initially intended but rather multiple devices (more than two) of different hardware configurations and price points. There was a leak before (and a confirmation in AMD's Xbox partnership video announced last year) that there are multiple chips in work, something that was rumoured to be used by Windows OEMs as dedicated gaming devices. I believe the reason Project Helix timeline has shifted from (previously long rumoured) 2026 announcement is because they are fast-tracking the other cheaper chips (maybe for their own use) and they are going to rework some aspects of it, given the RAM crisis we are dealing with. The newer consoles can replace Series X|S consoles completely, if they can figure out how to manufacture them cheaply. The advantage of cheaper hardware, even if it is worse in the raw power when compared to current Series X|S consoles, is the path tracing platform, including better upscaling and multi-frame generation technology, that can easily produce better visuals when compared to current consoles.
P.S. In Canada we could already buy Xbox Series models with subscription at BestBuy (I believe the program was called Xbox All Access and bundled Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for 2 years), so she isn't talking about subscription here.
@FraserG there is very little evidence to support the claim that it will simply be the same value as the gift cards, or that the value of gift cards will remain the same. Instead, they keep devaluing it, evident in the recent history of rewards program.
I don't know if someone at Xbox ever thought of creating an ecosystem of devices where you can take the Xbox card out of Helix in your living room, insert it into an Xbox portable as move to a different room/travel and resume playing. This is exactly what Steam is going to offer between its Deck, Machine, and Frame devices through microSD. The Xbox card instead offers SSD speed without compromising on portability. I always wonder if Microsoft's Cloud ambitions curb these pro-consumer convenient features that work for local devices.
@Tdx @RegnumSolipsi @Millionski I believe we are witnessing a change in strategy for GamePass. For every month, this year, they removedway less games than they added. This is likely to make the Premium tier "the best deal in gaming" that Ultimate once was, while avoiding the loss of sales that result from offering day one games on the Ultimate or their biggest money-maker, Call of Duty. This, I think, is the reason why they made Ultimate's price inaccessible for most players and kept premium at the same price. I only see them making day one games inaccessible to most gamers through subscriptions and that I think will likely result in them retiring PC GamePass within the next 2 years.
I believe we are witnessing a change in strategy for GamePass. For every month this year, they are removing way less games than they are adding. This is likely to make the Premium tier "the best deal in gaming" that Ultimate once was, which lets them avoid the loss of sales that result from day one games on the Ultimate. This, I think, is the reason why they made Ultimate's price inaccessible for most players and kept premium at the same price. I also think, because of this strategy, they will likely retire PC GamePass within the next 2 years.
@MaccaMUFC @BacklogBrad People keep forgetting that we are at the tail end of the PS5 generation, and Sony is no longer subsidising the hardware. Therefore, current PS5 and PS5 Pro prices don't influence PS6 pricing directly.
The rumours were Sony were specifically focussed on price when developing it, which makes sense as their whole business model revolves around selling 100+ million units and having those players on PSN.
When PS6 will be released, Sony will subsidise it by $200+, which they will recoup with PS+ and/or game sales. And even if RAM and Storage pricing don't go down when they launch it in 2028/29, they might even subsidise it as far as $300-350, and instead, significantly increase PS+ and/or game prices. I simply don't see Sony ever crossing $700 price point in the worst of circumstances.
Microsoft, on the other hand, cannot subsidise since the next gen console is going to run Steam, which by extension means no mandatory subscription will be required for online access either, i.e. no guaranteed recoup of any subsidised value. Pricing for Project Helix will, therefore, likely depend on the value of its parts and I can see them going $1200+, given the current RAM and Storage price projections.
hey @themightyant, thank you for the word of support. I had one question; how do you embed or stylize what someone else had written in your replies to them?
@MinervaX76 I never once suggested Copilot will not learn from what is shared with it. However, I criticized your framing that Copilot will constantly share information your usage when it is clearly know Microsoft already collects and even lets you see your usage data (before Copilot even launches on the Xbox). Furthermore, Copilot cannot possibly send "your every single action" to the cloud simply because that transmission is network intense and can conflict with your gaming, especially if you are playing a game that requires constant connection, such as Fortnite. What Copilot will certainly send to the cloud is the snapshot of your game, either a single frame or multiple, as well as whatever you ask it when it is summoned. Beyond that I don't see Microsoft adding anything additional since whatever you said will be shared is already being shared to the cloud database.
You are focused on how the data can be stored and processed in the cloud, however, your framing completely fails if we consider how your console will need to store and transmit anything more that: 1. what it already does 2. the snapshot and question I said it will add
@fatpunkslim GDK certainly avoids having the developer maintain two different development environments for developing games for Xbox console and the PC, however, it doesn't improve anything regarding the optimization process for any set of defined hardware specs, which often is the crux of either ports that don't scale well to handhelds, laptops and desktops simultaneously or simply bad ports.
In trying to beautify what Microsoft has done, you have completely misdefined what the word build even means. Even today, before developers start using GDK, the PC builds are already compatible with handhelds, laptops, desktops and PC-based cloud solutions like GeForce Now and Amazon Luna. The only addition GDK brings is the Xbox Series X|S port, that's it. It will take developers the same amount of time to develop games, and the only time reduced will be to port the game they developed for the entire PC ecosystem to Xbox Series X|S.
Once viewed through this lens, GDK is solely Microsoft's effort to fix the lack of Xbox Series X|S ports seen in the past few years. Anything beyond that is mere speculation. We don't even know whether Project Helix will have its own unique ports, or whether it will solely rely on PC ports for new games and Series X|S ports for old ones. If it is the latter, then even Microsoft's cloud efforts will be switched to PC, reducing any speculative implications GDK can have on Project Helix.
@kmtrain83 It is likely taking a screenshot of the game only when you ask it a question, otherwise storing to transmitting all what a player is doing is both nonsensical and a technical nightmare to do.
@MinervaX76 You are completely mistaken. It (CoPilot) doesn't need to constantly look at your activity because your Xbox already records that and even shows it to you on your PC app and Cloud. And, unless you opted out of sharing usage data during setup, Microsoft is already storing that information.
I usually am against generative AI because companies use marketing jargon to make it seem like the AI knows and understands a lot, whereas, in reality, it is far from it. However, this is clearly an accessibility feature for casual gamers. It is only one step more than one asking ChatGPT a question regarding the game, that one step more being the screenshot of the game.
@Kramlar I don't believe such a model is running on devices, although I don't mind being flabbergasted if it is indeed an LLM running on device. It probably takes screenshots of whatever is on the screen and sends it to the cloud, where a model trained on thousands of YouTube walkthrough commentaries gives you the answer.
@FraserG I believe it will improve quite a lot as use cases are better defined and Microsoft has the usage data on what aspects need to be improved. It will be a great accessibility feature for casual gamers.
@Globo It is a first-gen product that would need a few iterations before Microsoft optimised for its intended use. I believe it sends the screenshot of what you are currently doing in the game along with you question to it, so it will be a lot faster at recognizing exact scenarios, when it starts working as intended.
@Balaam_ They will definitely push it on store page and even the dashboard through advertisements. However, I think it will only ever run when we use some kind of a button shortcut on the controller (and probably a background service to make that launch quicker), since it won't make sense for them to capture entire gameplay (most likely due to storage concerns).
@GeminiX53 I know they won't care, and that's why I said earlier that everyone except them are invited to read my original comment. We have one of the first confirmations for my thesis that DLSS 5 is nothing more than a real-time AI generating slop machine - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0EM1vKt36s.
@GeeEssEff @TheGameThrifter @FiendishBeaver I have another theory here based on my experience in software development. I believe they are trying to prototype QuickResume for PC games in Project Helix console. In doing so, they are likely referencing their previous implementation on the Series consoles. Since the majority of the work was already done on said consoles and the feature had already been working for years, all they needed to do in these two weeks was expose a per-game option for the feature. I have no idea why they never did this under Phil, but this is indeed work that could be done in 2 weeks time.
P.S. They took 2 weeks for development and the testing will continue for more weeks with the Xbox insiders.
@Fiendish-Beaver I understand they have released many non-day 1 games, most of which are also available in Premium tier. However, the reason I asked such a question was to see whether that $30 price got its value over this period, even though that initial, and significant, hike suggested otherwise.
@Kezelpaso I know what day 1 release means, my question was whether they are on track for that or not. I don't see why you needed to suggest I didn't know day 1 also includes non-Microsoft games (when I never implied as such)
To everyone praising DLSS5 (@StylesT @Kloppo @Feffster @fatpunkslim @Neither_scene @MaccaMUFC @Globo), I won't debate that, instead I would like to have the same drogue (french word) you guys are having. To others who are interested in technical details, historical and future impact of genAI, I invite you to read further. Creating a model that takes a huge amount of game data, processes it with generalised knowledge, and outputs a game render, all in real-time, is a genuine technical achievement, even though it currently runs on two 5090s. The way they adapted generative AI (think an input specific LLM adapted to non-text formats, e.g. MidJourney) is phenomenal. Nvidia is suggesting it is not a filter, which is true in the traditional sense, but their own press release clearly states it uses "generative AI" that "infuses pixels with photoreal lighting and materials." In other words: it is a real-time genAI filter for games. And understanding what that actually means is what leads me to say that the product they have come up with is nothing more than slop. Not with disgust of any genAI, but because of the way it is changing visuals to a horrible end, something I believe can never truly be resolved. GenAI is called generative AI because it creates something that didn't exist before. Since the look it is trying to achieve doesn't exist in current games, it was necessarily trained on non-gaming data, requiring millions or billions of external data points to approximate something with no prior reference. The input is game data and the output is a render, but the technology at its core is the same LLM or MidJourney playbook. That matters because genAI generates every single texture, shadow, and lighting element when used. It cannot figure out whether something is a shadow over a texture or a different texture altogether, which is why it removes shadows where they existed before, adds hair where it didn't, and homogenises faces into what the internet data it was trained on finds attractive. Although developers have control over how much change is applied, there is no precise control over the art direction the genAI is coming up with, given it is a non-deterministic model. This cannot ever be resolved, simply because turning them into a deterministic model would require a thousand or million times the compute we have today. While it is currently an optional feature, history tells us that won't last. The lazy developers or gaming executives of tomorrow will see this as an opportunity to rely solely on this technology for a game's art direction, instead of paying art directors or engineers. Optional today has a way of becoming default tomorrow, and default has a way of becoming the only option. We have already seen this pattern play out with genAI in text and video, where industries that started with optional genAI tools are now flooded by genAI creations, usually referred to as slop. There is no evidence to suggest games will be any different. Suggested read: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/news/dlss5-breakthrough-in-visual-fidelity-for-games/
@Master_Cthulhu70 @fatpunkslim I don't read the advertisements or interviews as just the literal words but rather what they imply, which remains the same: deliver the software wherever there is demand for it. I don't see that changing. I also don't believe Nadella is losing sleep over Xbox hardware sales, especially given that they are now microscopic relative to Microsoft's total gaming revenue. The reason they are talking up Xbox as a console right now, and it is a smart move btw, is because they want to merge PC and console into a next generation living room PC category, and they need Xbox's brand reputation to launch it. That hardware will likely be delegated to OEMs down the line. I don't mind that merger, and I don't think anyone really does, but I am quite skeptical they will ship full Windows on it like the ROG Xbox Ally, simply because the temptation to trojan horse their OneDrive subscription so you can see your photos on the living room television is far too high to resist.
@Banjo @Millionski Xbox is also a business, and businesses don't necessarily need people from their domain background in leadership. TWIV did a deep dive on Asha Sharma and after reading it I am quite confident she is more than capable of leveraging the domain expertise of other specialists within Microsoft Gaming to scale the Xbox brand. I am quite certain Xbox as a business will thrive under her leadership, whether or not it does so in the way console gamers are hoping for.
Comments 126
Re: Xbox Sends Out Brief Statement Regarding 'Inaccurate' id Tech Reports
Banjo- wrote:
I never claimed layoffs couldn't be related to the growth of the studios, so thank you for putting words in my mouth. My only point of contention was the carelessly quoted 40% growth claim that made it seem like the 20% reduction is justified, as if the reduction was appropriately proportioned. That last part is essential, so please reread it if you wish to further dispute my statements. It is the statement made in this context that I called a lie, since the repercussions of sharing that claim create a fictional reasoning that has no basis in facts, at least the ones we know of. I make this claim because you added a source to MinervaX76's context "it seems they are going through studios one by one and mostly downsizing to what they were at the time of them being acquired", but never refuting or adding nuance.
What you have shared about certain studios is certainly a partial truth since you are claiming a fact about ALL studios while using the evidence of SOME. Yes, that 40% average growth number might be true for some studios, but not necessarily all. You are forgetting Xbox also has all of Activision Blizzard King studios, which is a significatly larger group of studios, yet the 10% layoffs (half of the 20% reduction in Xbox employees) was disproportionately towards the other groups, specifically Zenimax. And more specifically to iD, that studio was simply in more vulnerable state because it was in the stage of pitching projects, i.e. in the eyes of Xbox management, laying off people in that studio wouldn't have resulted in any loss of investment, in terms of a game being developed. And lastly, we are forgetting the most important thing, games have become significantly more complex than they were a decade ago, so even the fact that the studios have grown isn't necessarily wrong by itself, and should only be considered so when technology has improved to reduce that load or we have clear evidence of loss of investment, as in the case of South of Midnight or Perfect Dark projects.
2/2
Re: Xbox Sends Out Brief Statement Regarding 'Inaccurate' id Tech Reports
@Banjo- Oh boy! I wouldn't be making comments like this one, since it would make it seem like I am a more rude person than I truly am, but somehow it seems like you have taken things to your heart. I said it previously and I do so again, you didn't add context to your agreement with MinervaX76's comment in your original comment and that is what I pointed out. I called the statement a lie, not you or MinervaX76 a liar. People can share a half-lie without realising it, since that half lie is often based on partial truths. Being told you are wrong doesn't make you less of a person. But since you likely ignored that difference, I would have to clear the blame you have place on me, which seems to be more out of spite than anything else. So here we go again.
Banjo- wrote:
Now you are just conjuring bullsh1t by claiming I am the one shifting goals. For the purpose of shifting goals, one has to have two have an initial one and then introduce some change, which wasn't present in the original statement. In that exact quote, I only laid my initial statement about the specific layoffs at iD. I never changed my stance from that or tried to generalise the statement for any other studios that experienced layoffs. So no, I never shifted goals. I gave factual evidence for everything I shared about iD, so if you wish to disprove me, do so by sharing factual evidence against mine instead of speculation.
1/2
Re: Xbox Sends Out Brief Statement Regarding 'Inaccurate' id Tech Reports
@Banjo- your previous comment corroborated MinervaX76's exact phrasing "Phill increased all of Xbox by 40% despite lacking money flow" without adding any nuance/context that you did just now. You are shifting goal posts here mate. I called that exact statement (nothing more and nothing less) a lie and I stand by it.
Banjo wrote:
No she isn't referring to the whole Xbox division. She particularly specified Platforms division, not the rest of Xbox. You may refer to their organisational structure if you have confusion with division names.
Re: Xbox Sends Out Brief Statement Regarding 'Inaccurate' id Tech Reports
@FreasurePlanten Thanks. Only if Xbox lays out a multi-studio strategy for the development of the iD Tech engine, these other studios could then help with the engine's development. It all rests on whether Xbox funds the development of iD Tech, something they haven't committed to even with this debunking, instead of opting for short-term cheaper solutions like shifting to Unreal Engine. I want to emphasise this isn't a likely possibility, since such a multi-studio commitment to engine development would have required them to keep the engine developers that they just laid off. The current strategy seems to become profitable quickly, likely to make it easier to fund key projects without looming risks of failures. I don't mind that strategy, but I don't agree with what they did to iD.
Re: Xbox Sends Out Brief Statement Regarding 'Inaccurate' id Tech Reports
This is them saying
Microsoft_PR wrote:
136 employees were laid off at iD Software Richardson, including Director of Engine Technology, 2 Principal Engine Programmers, and 3 Senior Engine Programmers, among many others. The total studio size was roughly around 200 pre-layoffs with 165 employees registered with Communications Workers of America union.
I don't remember who reported it (I forgot to save the data), but only 4-5 people remain who directly work on the iD Tech engine at their headquaters in Richardson, Texas. (I will update the source when I see it again)
I don't believe in total doom and gloom. iD is resilient and will definitively make some great games in the future. But I cannot possibly believe this damage control that uses fiction to weave stories and ignorance to the remaining 1600 planned layoffs. If you read the Jez Corden article that "supposedly debunks fake news", he is saying he cannot possibly imagine Xbox sunsetting iD Tech, he isn't suggesting, in any sort of manner, that he has a source which confirms Xbox has any plans to make maintain or expand iD Tech through iD Software.
Source for the layoff data: the WARN (Work Adjustment and Retraining Notification) filing by Zenimax for its Richardson, Texas location, which is iD Software.
https://www.gamefile.news/p/xbox-cuts-texas-california
Source for the employee numbers pre-layoffs: Communications Workers of America, December 2025 data.
https://cwa-union.org/news/quake-and-doom-video-game-developers-join-cwa#:~:text=The%20165%20workers%20at%20Microsoft%20subsidiary%20id%20Software
Source for the remaining 1600 layoffs: Asha Sharma on X
https://x.com/asha_shar/status/2074124008795369482
Tagging: @Nakatomi_Uk, @HonestHick, @fatpunkslim, @awp69, @Markatron84, @FraserG, @oopsiezz, @Fiendish-Beaver @Onlyboxmatters
MinervaX76 wrote:
That is a lie. @Banjo- shared the source, but even he was quick to jump to conclusion, without reading the text properly. This is what Asha Sharma wrote in that post:
Asha_Sharma wrote:
Platform teams consist of many teams that handle the platform side of Xbox, including the ones maintaining XboxOS, Xbox Store on Consoles, Xbox Backwards Compatibility team (that was laid off), team that handles Xbox GamePass third-party partnerships, Xbox Series SDK team, etc. In essence, this does not include any gaming studio Xbox owns.
Re: Report: id Software Pitched New Perfect Dark Before Xbox Layoffs
tho_mi wrote:
I could reasonably understand their decisions elsewhere, Double Fine, Compulsion, and Arkane weren't making profitable games, Undead Labs has taken too long and too much investment even if they release a good game in the future, Elder Scrolls Online and Fallout 76 weren't raking in the kind of money their franchise enables, etc.
But iD? Doom The Dark Ages might not received the same status Eternal did, but it had reached 3 million players in the first week, way more than Assassin's Creed Shadows in the same period with 1/5th the developer count. The only thing that killed its revenue was day one access to GamePass, which even Call of Duty could not prevent, so why hold that for iD.
tho_mi wrote:
Xbox had announced 3200 employees to be laid off. They only did 1600 this week and the rest is yet to happen during the course of the financial year.
Re: Report: Bethesda Faces 'Significant Overhaul' At Xbox, Will Focus On Key Franchises
themightyant wrote:
I think you were right but we both underestimated the impact.
96 studio employees plus 40 remote workers were cut at iD Software, which includes the following members directly working on the iD Tech Engine
That is 136 employees laid off. The total studio size was 165 employees pre-layoffs. This doesn't look like sunsetting only the iD Tech game engine to me, but iD Software itself seems to have been reduced to a support studio.
Source for the layoff data: the WARN (Work Adjustment and Retraining Notification) filing by Zenimax for its Richardson, Texas location, which is iD Software.
https://www.gamefile.news/p/xbox-cuts-texas-california
Source for the employee numbers pre-layoffs: Communications Workers of America, December 2025 data
https://cwa-union.org/news/quake-and-doom-video-game-developers-join-cwa#:~:text=The%20165%20workers%20at%20Microsoft%20subsidiary%20id%20Software
Re: Report: id Software Pitched New Perfect Dark Before Xbox Layoffs
Banjo- wrote:
96 studio employees plus 40 remote workers were cut at iD Software, which includes the following members directly working on the iD Tech Engine
That is 136 employees laid off. The total studio size was 165 employees pre-layoffs.
As for the fate of the engine, the current rumors are Xbox is only going to extend the use of iD Tech 8 fork that MachineGames is working with for their future game rather than the potential iD Tech 9 iD Sofware would have developed for its future game. In simple terms, this could be the end of iD Tech game engine.
Source for the layoff data: the WARN (Work Adjustment and Retraining Notification) filing by Zenimax for its Richardson, Texas location, which is iD Software.
https://www.gamefile.news/p/xbox-cuts-texas-california
Source for the employee numbers pre-layoffs: Communications Workers of America, December 2025 data.
https://cwa-union.org/news/quake-and-doom-video-game-developers-join-cwa#:~:text=The%20165%20workers%20at%20Microsoft%20subsidiary%20id%20Software
Re: Roundup: Here's What The Previews Are Saying About The Blood Of Dawnwalker
@SodaPop6548 @Fiendish-Beaver @Savex I would recommend watching the Rebel Wolves developer interview with Friends Per Second podcast. They go through a lot of gameplay aspects that couldn't be covered otherwise in a single playthrough.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2cphQKh3dw&t=3982s
Re: Here's What DOOM: The Dark Ages Revelations DLC Looks Like On Xbox Series X|S
It is sad to see how they gutted one of their best studios for short-term gains. I am not a Doom fan myself, but a fan of their game engine and their custom versions, such as one used in the beautiful Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. May those fired engineers build something equally remarkable in the future.
Re: Xbox Game Pass Members Are Being Treated To A Surprise New Release Today (July 8)
If this is anywhere similar to Inscryption, then I want to play it NOW!
Re: 'They Will Report Directly To Me' - Mojang And King Singled Out By Xbox Boss
@themightyant While these slides are good to understand where the industry at large stands, it seems like they made their decisions based on industry trends alone, rather than looking where their core competence is and then expanding from that.
I don't understand how people deem these individuals as industry experts. You cannot make another Roblox, another Fortnite, another Candy Crush, or another Minecraft. These things become what they are because the studio, the development and the tools were structured in a particular way from the very beginning. What Xbox is doing right now is the Ubisoft play of turning every game loot and grind and later Sony's play into live-service concords. Hell, even Roblox is built using a custom engine, a lesson I hoped they would at least take from it.
Re: Xbox CEO Sets Ambitious Goal Of Reaching 'More Than A Billion People Each Day'
@carlos82 @Fiendish-Beaver @themightyant I see the 1 billion daily user number as nothing more than a whistle to the investors. In fact, the whole letter, seems to be written with intention that investors see it and realise the new CEO has finally cleaned house, the future only looks brighter from now, you can come and invest again.
Re: 'They Will Report Directly To Me' - Mojang And King Singled Out By Xbox Boss
Runex2121 wrote:
Capcom should be the north star for all gaming companies with its 12th straight profitable year, yet all western gaming executives try to game short term profits.
Re: 'They Will Report Directly To Me' - Mojang And King Singled Out By Xbox Boss
themightyant wrote:
Initially, I didn't want to judge her before she made any major decisions for Xbox. But, seeing all this now, I think she wants forever games with user creation to delegate labor away from costly developers. Name one gaming executive who didn't have that idea before!?
Also tagging @somnambulance
Re: Report: Bethesda Faces 'Significant Overhaul' At Xbox, Will Focus On Key Franchises
themightyant wrote:
I was actually talking about the organisational level where 5% of billions is quite unreasonable cost, especially when vertical integration can easily lower the cost as well as the dependency.
themightyant wrote:
Sadly, I think someone only saw an excel sheet with the number of iD Tech engineers and the number of games made with the engine to decide the layoffs. They didn't see the technology in hand, how well received the games were, or even looked at the only successful timed exclusive Xbox had in the recent past, i.e. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Essentially, I wished for iD Tech to become to Xbox what RE Engine is to Capcom, especially since they have already build the most modern technologies in the engine (performant path tracing, environmental distruction, hybrid lighting and shadows, etc.). And it could've been both profitable and objectively better when compared to Unreal, if moved from the studio level to the organisational level.
Re: Report: Bethesda Faces 'Significant Overhaul' At Xbox, Will Focus On Key Franchises
oopsiezz wrote:
I don't think Asha has in any way suggested they won't create new IPs. Rather, her last statement, few weeks ago, suggested Xbox should keep creating new IPs for consistent growth.
Dishonored is certainly a loss. But it was also a franchise that never made profits. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is the only game I know in the recent past that was a major success in the immersive-sim genre, so there is some hope they would do something similar but not necessarily Dishonored.
Re: Report: Bethesda Faces 'Significant Overhaul' At Xbox, Will Focus On Key Franchises
themightyant wrote:
I believe a more sensible approach will be to keep the current game in development, Elder Scrolls VI I think with their current engine, but switch to idTech for the future game in production, Fallout I think. The reason I suggest idTech is how it was used in the Indiana Jones and the Great Circle with the world design, performance and variety all rendered in a somewhat open world landscape. Whatever upgrades they need for their games could be made to idTech and evolve it in a similar manner to CryEngine. The reason I am against Unreal is because that would require revenue sharing, which is a huge loss for tentpole franchises like Elder Scrolls and Fallout.
themightyant wrote:
I think the timeline matters here more than the conclusion. Xbox hadn't bought Bethesda Studio when Halo Infinite was in development, so the 343's options were either to rely on their custom engine or go for the most generic one. Now, things are different. If Xbox moves multiple franchises to engine such as idTech, it can easily create a large enough group of developers working with idTech. Many of such studios are based in US, so sharing knowledge and staff when necessary wouldn't be difficult either. The examples you gave, of course, are valid at the individual studios level, but a publisher as big and Microsoft can easily get multiple studios to make the switch and help each other in the process.
Re: Report: Bethesda Faces 'Significant Overhaul' At Xbox, Will Focus On Key Franchises
carlos82 wrote:
Truly. idTech is a gold mine that has been underutilised by both under Zenimax and now XBOX.
Re: Rumour: Halo Being 'Heavily Evaluated' At Xbox, But Remains Key Part Of Future Plans
They should turn Halo into a multi studio effort like Call of Duty is, but with reduced frequency of a new game every 3 years.A multi studio effort will help Halo evolve from its peak in the Bungie era, even if we will get some misses sometimes, until they find what clicks with the modern audience.
Re: Xbox Expects The 'Component Crisis' To Get Worse For Consoles In 2027
@GeeEssEff https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymaqIW9HmD0
Re: Poll: If You're Buying GTA 6, Are You Getting The Standard Or Ultimate Edition?
I will Pre-order the Standard Edition in November, before the release date, just so I get the pre-order bonus, which Rockstar won't likely let you purchase afterwards. And when I replay the game the second time, I will definitively add the Ultimate Edition Upgrade.
If like Red Dead Redemption 2, Rockstar didn't allow an Ultimate Edition path, I would've directly purchased the Ultimate Edition in one go.
Re: DOOM: The Dark Ages Brings Its 'Revelations' Expansion To Xbox In July
@Banjo- Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, an exceptional game visually, was built on idTech 7. So the engine can be adapted to other games beyond Doom.
Source - https://www.creativebloq.com/entertainment/gaming/indiana-jones-and-the-great-circle-review-most-cinematic-game-ever-made
Re: Xbox Leaders Outline Five 'Realities' That Will Be Addressed Over The Next 100 Days
I think @TrollOfWar is on point when questioning why Microsoft relied on AMD to develop its hardware, even for Helix [1][2], whereas Sony was and still is more involved in shaping the PlayStation hardware and software. You can see it even in the development of PSSR, which according to Digital Foundry is better than AMD FSR4 in some specific scenarios [3]. @themightyant @Godot25 Sony reduced the cost to produce PlayStation 5 over the years with multiple revisions [4], while Xbox didn't, something that could've reduced the impact of the current crisis on Microsoft's hardware offering.
@McKeownPlayz I don't think she's inheriting the worst of Xbox business. Instead, the first-party software pipeline is the best as it has ever been, comparable or surpassing its Xbox 360 years. That software offering was the major reason why Xbox declined near the end of Xbox 360 (when they were shipping more Kinect experiences than games), Xbox One (due to lack of consistent great first party or third party exclusives), and the beginning of Xbox Series X|S (due to no day-one system seller and continued lack of great first party exclusives). However, she is definitely inheriting Xbox at the worst time possible, the problem being the number of years it requires to make any changes to the hardware (both current or future). So she is bound by those hardware constraints that will remain fixed for at least the next 2 years.
@Banjo- @MrStark It is a relief that someone at the head of a company understands the depth of the problem she faces. We might not like the solutions she might come up with, but we can trust she will do everything in her power to get Xbox out of this mess.
@Godot25 I think Matt Booty's tenure was shaped by Phil's love of small studios and a big success of Game Pass was to lower the cost of production through plenty of smaller dedicated games like that of Double Fine's. I believe (but I could be wrong) that Matt would've communicated the same to Asha.
@PsBoxSwitchOwner The RAM used in commodity hardware like Xbox or PlayStation is not the same as the one used in Azure data centers, i.e. it is not interchangeable. However, they certainly didn't reserve much RAM for Xbox when compared to Sony who were even prepared for discounting their hardware further during the last holiday season.
[1] https://www.notebookcheck.net/Microsoft-engineers-criticized-as-source-claims-AMD-is-designing-new-Xbox-consoles-alone.1138388.0.html
[2] https://powerupgaming.co.uk/2025/10/14/amd-insider-says-microsoft-engineers-expect-them-to-do-all-the-work/
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QQVc6w-B-8
[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0UrxVnRxLo
Re: 'We'll Start To See Radically Different Business Models' - Xbox Boss Talks Future Of Consoles
@Balaam_ @Banjo- This seems like a different approach from what Phil and Sarah had, at least how she is shifting focus away from $1000 consoles. I think she is suggesting the Project Helix won't end up being a single premium device as initially intended but rather multiple devices (more than two) of different hardware configurations and price points. There was a leak before (and a confirmation in AMD's Xbox partnership video announced last year) that there are multiple chips in work, something that was rumoured to be used by Windows OEMs as dedicated gaming devices. I believe the reason Project Helix timeline has shifted from (previously long rumoured) 2026 announcement is because they are fast-tracking the other cheaper chips (maybe for their own use) and they are going to rework some aspects of it, given the RAM crisis we are dealing with. The newer consoles can replace Series X|S consoles completely, if they can figure out how to manufacture them cheaply. The advantage of cheaper hardware, even if it is worse in the raw power when compared to current Series X|S consoles, is the path tracing platform, including better upscaling and multi-frame generation technology, that can easily produce better visuals when compared to current consoles.
P.S. In Canada we could already buy Xbox Series models with subscription at BestBuy (I believe the program was called Xbox All Access and bundled Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for 2 years), so she isn't talking about subscription here.
Re: DOOM: The Dark Ages Brings Its 'Revelations' Expansion To Xbox In July
I wonder how Gears of War E-Day would have looked if they had used idTech 8 instead of the Unreal Engine.
Re: Report: Halo 2 & 3 Remakes Are In 'Active Development' At Halo Studios
I mean they know Halo will sell well on PlayStation, where majority of their revenue will come from.
Re: Xbox Fans Share Their 'Birthday Gift' Point Rewards Following Last Week's New Feature
Looks like CoPilot wrote the code for this new feature, lol.
Re: What's In The Box? Kojima Meets Asha Sharma And Receives Mysterious Xbox Gift
@Nakatomi_Uk The box is too small for the Project Helix prototype. This is something small but clearly fragile or something exposed.
Re: Xbox Rewards Points Are Being Turned Into An Actual Currency For Buying Games On Console
@FraserG there is very little evidence to support the claim that it will simply be the same value as the gift cards, or that the value of gift cards will remain the same. Instead, they keep devaluing it, evident in the recent history of rewards program.
Re: 'Voila, 920GB Of Extra Storage' - Xbox Fan Turns Their 1TB Expansion Card Into A PC SSD
I don't know if someone at Xbox ever thought of creating an ecosystem of devices where you can take the Xbox card out of Helix in your living room, insert it into an Xbox portable as move to a different room/travel and resume playing. This is exactly what Steam is going to offer between its Deck, Machine, and Frame devices through microSD. The Xbox card instead offers SSD speed without compromising on portability. I always wonder if Microsoft's Cloud ambitions curb these pro-consumer convenient features that work for local devices.
Re: With 2025's GOTY Now In The Library, Xbox Game Pass Premium Is Becoming Too Good To Ignore
@Tdx @RegnumSolipsi @Millionski I believe we are witnessing a change in strategy for GamePass. For every month, this year, they removedway less games than they added. This is likely to make the Premium tier "the best deal in gaming" that Ultimate once was, while avoiding the loss of sales that result from offering day one games on the Ultimate or their biggest money-maker, Call of Duty. This, I think, is the reason why they made Ultimate's price inaccessible for most players and kept premium at the same price. I only see them making day one games inaccessible to most gamers through subscriptions and that I think will likely result in them retiring PC GamePass within the next 2 years.
Re: Here's What Might Leave Xbox Game Pass In May 2026
I believe we are witnessing a change in strategy for GamePass. For every month this year, they are removing way less games than they are adding. This is likely to make the Premium tier "the best deal in gaming" that Ultimate once was, which lets them avoid the loss of sales that result from day one games on the Ultimate. This, I think, is the reason why they made Ultimate's price inaccessible for most players and kept premium at the same price. I also think, because of this strategy, they will likely retire PC GamePass within the next 2 years.
Re: 'We're Just Getting Started' - Xbox Employee Hypes Up 'Momentum' Of 2026 So Far
Didn't they promise 75 day one games when they price hiked the Ultimate tier?!
Re: '$1000 Consoles Will Be The Norm' - Analysts Discuss Cost Of PS6 & Next-Gen Xbox
@MaccaMUFC @BacklogBrad People keep forgetting that we are at the tail end of the PS5 generation, and Sony is no longer subsidising the hardware. Therefore, current PS5 and PS5 Pro prices don't influence PS6 pricing directly.
themightyant put it nicely
themightyant wrote:
When PS6 will be released, Sony will subsidise it by $200+, which they will recoup with PS+ and/or game sales. And even if RAM and Storage pricing don't go down when they launch it in 2028/29, they might even subsidise it as far as $300-350, and instead, significantly increase PS+ and/or game prices. I simply don't see Sony ever crossing $700 price point in the worst of circumstances.
Microsoft, on the other hand, cannot subsidise since the next gen console is going to run Steam, which by extension means no mandatory subscription will be required for online access either, i.e. no guaranteed recoup of any subsidised value. Pricing for Project Helix will, therefore, likely depend on the value of its parts and I can see them going $1200+, given the current RAM and Storage price projections.
Re: Xbox Exec Talks Project Helix And Why It'll Be 'Easier' Than Series X|S To Develop For
@themightyant Woah, thanks. That is pretty helpful.
Re: Xbox Exec Talks Project Helix And Why It'll Be 'Easier' Than Series X|S To Develop For
hey @themightyant, thank you for the word of support. I had one question; how do you embed or stylize what someone else had written in your replies to them?
Re: Xbox 'Copilot' Demonstration Hints At How It'll Work On Your Series X|S
@MinervaX76 I never once suggested Copilot will not learn from what is shared with it. However, I criticized your framing that Copilot will constantly share information your usage when it is clearly know Microsoft already collects and even lets you see your usage data (before Copilot even launches on the Xbox). Furthermore, Copilot cannot possibly send "your every single action" to the cloud simply because that transmission is network intense and can conflict with your gaming, especially if you are playing a game that requires constant connection, such as Fortnite. What Copilot will certainly send to the cloud is the snapshot of your game, either a single frame or multiple, as well as whatever you ask it when it is summoned. Beyond that I don't see Microsoft adding anything additional since whatever you said will be shared is already being shared to the cloud database.
You are focused on how the data can be stored and processed in the cloud, however, your framing completely fails if we consider how your console will need to store and transmit anything more that:
1. what it already does
2. the snapshot and question I said it will add
Re: Xbox Exec Talks Project Helix And Why It'll Be 'Easier' Than Series X|S To Develop For
@fatpunkslim GDK certainly avoids having the developer maintain two different development environments for developing games for Xbox console and the PC, however, it doesn't improve anything regarding the optimization process for any set of defined hardware specs, which often is the crux of either ports that don't scale well to handhelds, laptops and desktops simultaneously or simply bad ports.
In trying to beautify what Microsoft has done, you have completely misdefined what the word build even means. Even today, before developers start using GDK, the PC builds are already compatible with handhelds, laptops, desktops and PC-based cloud solutions like GeForce Now and Amazon Luna. The only addition GDK brings is the Xbox Series X|S port, that's it. It will take developers the same amount of time to develop games, and the only time reduced will be to port the game they developed for the entire PC ecosystem to Xbox Series X|S.
Once viewed through this lens, GDK is solely Microsoft's effort to fix the lack of Xbox Series X|S ports seen in the past few years. Anything beyond that is mere speculation. We don't even know whether Project Helix will have its own unique ports, or whether it will solely rely on PC ports for new games and Series X|S ports for old ones. If it is the latter, then even Microsoft's cloud efforts will be switched to PC, reducing any speculative implications GDK can have on Project Helix.
Re: Xbox 'Copilot' Demonstration Hints At How It'll Work On Your Series X|S
@kmtrain83 It is likely taking a screenshot of the game only when you ask it a question, otherwise storing to transmitting all what a player is doing is both nonsensical and a technical nightmare to do.
Re: Xbox 'Copilot' Demonstration Hints At How It'll Work On Your Series X|S
@MinervaX76 You are completely mistaken. It (CoPilot) doesn't need to constantly look at your activity because your Xbox already records that and even shows it to you on your PC app and Cloud. And, unless you opted out of sharing usage data during setup, Microsoft is already storing that information.
I usually am against generative AI because companies use marketing jargon to make it seem like the AI knows and understands a lot, whereas, in reality, it is far from it. However, this is clearly an accessibility feature for casual gamers. It is only one step more than one asking ChatGPT a question regarding the game, that one step more being the screenshot of the game.
Re: Xbox 'Copilot' Demonstration Hints At How It'll Work On Your Series X|S
@Kramlar I don't believe such a model is running on devices, although I don't mind being flabbergasted if it is indeed an LLM running on device. It probably takes screenshots of whatever is on the screen and sends it to the cloud, where a model trained on thousands of YouTube walkthrough commentaries gives you the answer.
@FraserG I believe it will improve quite a lot as use cases are better defined and Microsoft has the usage data on what aspects need to be improved. It will be a great accessibility feature for casual gamers.
@Globo It is a first-gen product that would need a few iterations before Microsoft optimised for its intended use. I believe it sends the screenshot of what you are currently doing in the game along with you question to it, so it will be a lot faster at recognizing exact scenarios, when it starts working as intended.
@Balaam_ They will definitely push it on store page and even the dashboard through advertisements. However, I think it will only ever run when we use some kind of a button shortcut on the controller (and probably a background service to make that launch quicker), since it won't make sense for them to capture entire gameplay (most likely due to storage concerns).
Re: Bethesda Says Starfield Looks 'Amazing' With Nvidia's DLSS 5, But Don't Expect It On Xbox
@GeminiX53 I know they won't care, and that's why I said earlier that everyone except them are invited to read my original comment. We have one of the first confirmations for my thesis that DLSS 5 is nothing more than a real-time AI generating slop machine - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0EM1vKt36s.
Re: Xbox's Starfield Is Already One Of The Top Three Pre-Orders On PS5
They may have given up the "This is an Xbox" tagline, but PS5 will still be getting every AAA Xbox game going forward. Mark my words!
Re: 'Keep The Feedback Coming' - Xbox Boss Says New Console Features Were Built Two Weeks Ago
@GeeEssEff @TheGameThrifter @FiendishBeaver I have another theory here based on my experience in software development. I believe they are trying to prototype QuickResume for PC games in Project Helix console. In doing so, they are likely referencing their previous implementation on the Series consoles. Since the majority of the work was already done on said consoles and the feature had already been working for years, all they needed to do in these two weeks was expose a per-game option for the feature. I have no idea why they never did this under Phil, but this is indeed work that could be done in 2 weeks time.
P.S. They took 2 weeks for development and the testing will continue for more weeks with the Xbox insiders.
Re: Microsoft's Next First-Party Release Officially Launches On Xbox Game Pass This April
@Fiendish-Beaver I understand they have released many non-day 1 games, most of which are also available in Premium tier. However, the reason I asked such a question was to see whether that $30 price got its value over this period, even though that initial, and significant, hike suggested otherwise.
Re: Microsoft's Next First-Party Release Officially Launches On Xbox Game Pass This April
@Kezelpaso I know what day 1 release means, my question was whether they are on track for that or not. I don't see why you needed to suggest I didn't know day 1 also includes non-Microsoft games (when I never implied as such)
Re: Microsoft's Next First-Party Release Officially Launches On Xbox Game Pass This April
I wish we knew if Microsoft is on track for releasing 75 day one titles each year, ever since the Game Pass hike last October.
Further read: https://www.purexbox.com/news/2025/10/xbox-game-pass-ultimate-will-now-get-75plus-day-one-titles-per-year-a-50percent-increase-on-before
Re: Bethesda Says Starfield Looks 'Amazing' With Nvidia's DLSS 5, But Don't Expect It On Xbox
To everyone praising DLSS5 (@StylesT @Kloppo @Feffster @fatpunkslim @Neither_scene @MaccaMUFC @Globo), I won't debate that, instead I would like to have the same drogue (french word) you guys are having. To others who are interested in technical details, historical and future impact of genAI, I invite you to read further.
Creating a model that takes a huge amount of game data, processes it with generalised knowledge, and outputs a game render, all in real-time, is a genuine technical achievement, even though it currently runs on two 5090s. The way they adapted generative AI (think an input specific LLM adapted to non-text formats, e.g. MidJourney) is phenomenal. Nvidia is suggesting it is not a filter, which is true in the traditional sense, but their own press release clearly states it uses "generative AI" that "infuses pixels with photoreal lighting and materials." In other words: it is a real-time genAI filter for games. And understanding what that actually means is what leads me to say that the product they have come up with is nothing more than slop. Not with disgust of any genAI, but because of the way it is changing visuals to a horrible end, something I believe can never truly be resolved.
GenAI is called generative AI because it creates something that didn't exist before. Since the look it is trying to achieve doesn't exist in current games, it was necessarily trained on non-gaming data, requiring millions or billions of external data points to approximate something with no prior reference. The input is game data and the output is a render, but the technology at its core is the same LLM or MidJourney playbook. That matters because genAI generates every single texture, shadow, and lighting element when used. It cannot figure out whether something is a shadow over a texture or a different texture altogether, which is why it removes shadows where they existed before, adds hair where it didn't, and homogenises faces into what the internet data it was trained on finds attractive. Although developers have control over how much change is applied, there is no precise control over the art direction the genAI is coming up with, given it is a non-deterministic model. This cannot ever be resolved, simply because turning them into a deterministic model would require a thousand or million times the compute we have today.
While it is currently an optional feature, history tells us that won't last. The lazy developers or gaming executives of tomorrow will see this as an opportunity to rely solely on this technology for a game's art direction, instead of paying art directors or engineers. Optional today has a way of becoming default tomorrow, and default has a way of becoming the only option. We have already seen this pattern play out with genAI in text and video, where industries that started with optional genAI tools are now flooded by genAI creations, usually referred to as slop. There is no evidence to suggest games will be any different.
Suggested read: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/news/dlss5-breakthrough-in-visual-fidelity-for-games/
Re: Xbox Must Live Up To Expectations Of Fans Who Have 'Counted On Us', Says Microsoft Boss
@Master_Cthulhu70 @fatpunkslim I don't read the advertisements or interviews as just the literal words but rather what they imply, which remains the same: deliver the software wherever there is demand for it. I don't see that changing. I also don't believe Nadella is losing sleep over Xbox hardware sales, especially given that they are now microscopic relative to Microsoft's total gaming revenue. The reason they are talking up Xbox as a console right now, and it is a smart move btw, is because they want to merge PC and console into a next generation living room PC category, and they need Xbox's brand reputation to launch it. That hardware will likely be delegated to OEMs down the line. I don't mind that merger, and I don't think anyone really does, but I am quite skeptical they will ship full Windows on it like the ROG Xbox Ally, simply because the temptation to trojan horse their OneDrive subscription so you can see your photos on the living room television is far too high to resist.
@Banjo @Millionski Xbox is also a business, and businesses don't necessarily need people from their domain background in leadership. TWIV did a deep dive on Asha Sharma and after reading it I am quite confident she is more than capable of leveraging the domain expertise of other specialists within Microsoft Gaming to scale the Xbox brand. I am quite certain Xbox as a business will thrive under her leadership, whether or not it does so in the way console gamers are hoping for.