At the Wells Fargo TMT Summit this morning, Xbox Chief Financial Officer Tim Stuart spoke on a plethora of topics related to Xbox’s recent ventures and goals for the future. Chief among these topics was how Microsoft is eyeing AI as a useful tool in gaming and how the idea of paid multiplayer pushed the company to create the Game Pass Core membership.

Stuart spoke highly of his expectations for AI in the future of gaming. Seeing it as the next big shift for the industry, he had the following to say:

“On the developer side, you think about the millions and millions of dollars in a game spent on localization, script, how you think about players moving from point A to point B and you have non-player characters have dialogue.

AI can take care of all that. You now say “I need the player to get from A to B” and instead of having to write thousands of lines of scripting or code, you just have the AI get you from A to B. Things like localization and putting things in new languages.

When we think about game testing, a million AI bots can run through a level of Minecraft and find where players get stuck, where they spend money, how they think about the level. So, this is–pun intended–game-changing for the developer.”

His hope for AI tools is that it will enable more video game fans to make games even if they don’t possess the technical capabilities of a high-level developer. In his example, a Starbucks barista would be able to create a mobile game using Copilot and AI with little to no experience.

Obviously, we’re pretty far out from this reality, and Stuart understands that. But he also sees a more imminent use for AI tools in recommending games to players based on what they and their friends enjoy:

“We see you like these kind of games, your friends play these types of games, you should go play Dead Space, pick a game like that.”

Stuart also spoke about Game Pass and the company’s move away from the years-old Xbox Live Gold program. According to him, the switch was a result of the idea that paying for multiplayer “feels antiquated” in the modern age. Instead of just paying for online, Xbox thought they could provide more value to players and give them access to dozens and dozens of games at the same time:

“And one of the great things about gaming is, if you find a way to drive value to gamers and they’re paying for that value that they enjoy, it’s actually a great relationship. They don’t feel like they’re being grinded down on the dollars.

Like, I’m paying $17 a month and I get access to hundreds of games. The value is there. And for us, we offer most of our games if not all that we’ve had before Activision. When a game launches, it’s included in Game Pass as well, so that’s one of the unique value propositions that we have.”

Microsoft has clearly been working on an Xbox-wide transition into a new era. Between the new focus on AI, the change to their membership structure, and all the corporate restructuring, it’s undeniable that Xbox is looking to up their game in the next five to ten years. The recent Activision Blizzard acquisition is sure to help with that goal as well.

Microsoft recently announced a multi-year partnership with Inworld AI to create AI toolsets for game developers. You can read about that here.

Source: Wells Fargo via TechRaptor