Xbox CEO ends Copilot AI development and overhauls leadership | Hacker News Reader

Xbox CEO ends Copilot AI development and overhauls leadership

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What is/was Copilot on mobile and on XBox? I can’t keep track of all the different things Microsoft now calls “Copilot.”

It’s interesting that so many execs with a GenAI background are joining a gaming console division, and seemingly moving away from GenAI. Gamers are pretty hostile to GenAI, too.

Edit: As nhinck2 says below, all the new execs came with the new CEO from her CoreAI division. So maybe not so interesting after all.

Well, one person moved and then brought a bunch of people with them.

Good point.

It was supposed to be Copilot, with access to your Xbox account. So you could ask it things like "what achievements do I have in [game]?" It would also know what game you were playing, and answer questions like, "I'm stuck on [puzzle], give me a hint," etc.

The "on mobile" part was that it would be integrated into the Xbox mobile app.

(I say "supposed to be" because it was just a beta, and hadn't even made it to consoles yet – just PC and mobile.)

One turn away from 'Hey Copilot can you play my game for me'.

Where the other player asked the same thing so Copilot has to play against itself...

It doesn't sound too different than things like the Nintendo Power Hotline.

That…might have actually been what they were missing, that usecase…

But this was replaced by Segasages/Gamefaqs. There are a lot of gamers now that will make a YouTube video about it. Seems like a replacement for no reason.

Autoplay mode (non-AI based), isn't all that unusual for Asian MMOs, e.g. builtin farming bots to counter thirdparty farming bots.

Automating work in a work simulation game so you can relax.

There used to be a whole industry centered around paying someone to farm gold on your WoW account.

Runescape as well. Gold farming for membership bonds severely stratified the game's economy and pushed people towards Oldschool Runescape. From the introduction of bonds until 2017 the number of bots raised at a rate unseen since the switchover to the new skilling menu in 2002.

I have never used it, but many games on Playstation offer a kind of Hint function accessible from within the platform.

I've used those occasionally and they seem to be a mix of official guides and user-submitted video clips, but it's not clear where the user-submitted clips come from.

This is such a solved problem though (from my experience). Usually googling the location/quest/puzzle name gets the result you are looking for first time. No need for copilot.

Maybe it's just the type of games I'm playing, for example "how to get nyrulna" in google gives me my answer in the first search result.

> Usually googling the location/quest/puzzle name gets the result you are looking for

Yeah but see they don't want you "googling" it. They want you "copiloting".

isn't Copilot just whatever Microsoft needs it to be this week?

No, you’re thinking of .NET. Or maybe 365. Or perhaps you’re thinking of Live. Or maybe it was ActiveX.

Isn't even MS Office Copilot now?

There is no such thing as ms office any more. Please don't speak of him.

But also please don't try to find the new one with our search bar. Really, please don't.

We don't talk about Cortana any longer. She's not welcome here.

Remember the "Cloud to butt" browser extension? There could be a Copilot to super potato (etc) extension.

seems like it'd be more appropriate to have an extension that replaced all microsoft product names with Copilot

Nice idea. Microsoft Copilot for Copilot for Copilot.

> What is/was Copilot on mobile and on XBox?

I'd love to explain!

On xbox mobile app you now have a copilot section. It's a chat. If you ask it for current price of something in the store, it will find outdated results from other stores on the internet. That's assuming the "send" button will work, mine often doesn't (it depends on keyboard you use somehow). But app will crash anyway so who cares.

Thank you for your attention.

Feasting on their own dogfood, it seems

> What is/was Copilot on mobile and on XBox? I can’t keep track of all the different things Microsoft now calls “Copilot.”

"Microsoft Xbox Copilot app"

Cause obviously what the gamers need right now is not games - but intrusive AI that adds no utility whatsoever.

Why didn’t I think of that?

I think this is pure economics. Don't add features people don't want to pay for, or you lower profits.

What else would it be?

According to Asha Sharma it is "move faster, deepen our connection with the community, and address friction for both players and developers."

Sounds promising! Hope she can turn things around.

Xbox doing anything except of games

Being one of the biggest publishers is also a money maker.

You know, those games that Steam has to do binary translation into Linux, like Dolphin, because no one cares to target it natively.

Ending console development? So what even is Xbox after that? An also-ran Steam clone? The point was buying physical hardware, I thought, that ran the games perfectly without f'ing around.

Microsoft continues to prove they have no taste

Ending Copilot development on console, not ending console development. It's just poorly written.

Too late, no games, terrible service, Xbox has ignored its userbase since XSX release and with Steam getting stronger by the day, it is a little too late.

I only turn my XSX on for a few minutes so the SSD won't loose its data, to update and turn it off.

I got the new Steam controller instead of using my Xbox Elite 2 controller on Steam. XSX was my last interaction with Xbox as a whole, there is no future, not while Microsoft owns it!!

Look at what they did with the studios they bought, nothing!!

Look at what they did with COD, destroyed what was already broken.

Console is so dead that even Sony is making dumb changes pushing players to Steam.

Which is why exclusives matter, you don't go to Steam if the game is only on one of Switch, PlayStation, XBox, XBox PC, Android, iOS, Apple Arcade,.....

You don't publish such exclusive games on these platforms if there aren't enough people using the platforms. Even higher incentives from MSFT/Sony probably wouldn't help.

There are plenty of people using those platforms, even game developers prefer to target stable hardware, than zoo configurations.

However what isn't happening is the growth that shareholders love so much, because like in other industries those MBA folks still haven't understood there isn't such thing as an infinite exponential growth curve.

As 70's child, before those MBAs even cared games industry existed, many of us had to contend with a single new game per year, or learn how to program our own games, now we are in a state like 1983 crash.

There are enough games to play even on lousiest platform, than most people have time on their lives to finish.

Steam Machine, PlayStation, Nintendo is the future I foresee. PC obviously, but that'll always be a given

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