Project Helix is stuck between a rock (Microsoft investors laser focused on generative AI) and a hard place (gamers that are seemingly allergic to the controversial tech), according to the original Xbox console's co-creator.
'Father of Xbox' Seamus Blackley recently appeared on the Expansion Pass podcast to talk about the company's next-gen console hybrid, codenamed Project Helix, a piece of hardware he thinks will face real pressure from Microsoft shareholders looking to shove generative AI into every corner of the business.
Blackley speculates that the average Microsoft shareholders' business interest is now "AI, AI, AI" and there's a class of investors who, "now that they’ve put that money into AI, are psychotically interested in making every single other company they talk to use that AI."
"How do we have a game console, but it has to use all this stuff that we've invested in?" Blackley ponders while putting himself in the shoes of the person running Xbox, "but gamers hate AI slop, but it also has to somehow use AI to get blessed inside of Microsoft. So where does that exist?"
He then struggles with the concept of Xbox, explaining how they "have a games division that's allergic to AI" while the company has "put a trillion dollars" into the tech: "You're going to get a lot of pressure as the guy running that games division to use AI, right? Whether or not it's a good idea. Whether or not it makes technical sense, nothing matters. It's because shareholder value."
Blackley also suggests the Activision Blizzard buyout put more corporate pressure on Xbox to potentially "bring more shareholder value into Windows because a bunch of the shareholders don't understand why we're wasting a bunch of money on games."
New Xbox CEO Asha Sharma tried to put some of those fears to rest earlier this year, when she pledged the company wouldn't flood the gaming ecosystem with "soulless AI slop." That hasn't stopped Xbox's incoming Copilot AI from getting the side-eye by gamers and devs, however, and the loud backlash to Nvidia's DLSS 5 tech might prove that attitude isn't changing anytime soon.
