微软Xbox宣布成立Xbox Labs新部门探索可能性

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has announced Xbox Labs, a new division of “game makers, engineers and scientists whose job is to turn emerging ideas into things our players and developers can experience.“

In an email from Asha Sharma to Xbox staff seen by DayOne (and now published on Xbox Wire), she focused in on the recent explosion of decompiled, rebuilt games running on hardware they were never designed for. One recent experimental mod that went viral recently was ArkWeb, that took Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered and plonked Spidey straight into the dark world of Arkham Knight.

“Windows PC builds have been translated to run on Apple Silicon or ported to run inside a browser through WebAssembly and WebGPU, the latter now approaching 90% global browser support,” writes Sharma. “Perhaps more surprisingly, we’ve seen many of the biggest games in the world have been remixed into the source code of another. ”

This leads us to Xbox Labs, a new team that’s been stood up by Xbox CTO Scott Van Vliet on Sharma’s request. The goal here, according to the Xbox CEO, is explore the possibilities.

“These experiments challenge long-held assumptions about our industry: the tether between software and hardware, the boundary between creation and play, and how people discover and experience games.” says Sharma. “While it is hard to predict the future of gaming, it is easy to see the possibilities in making great games easier to access, giving old games new life and allowing more players to become creators and co-creators. These are unmistakably good outcomes for players, even when (and sometimes because) they challenge our existing business models. “

It’s an interesting premise, and I’m left with more than a few questions. One, this seems an admittedly long-winded way of talking about AI without specifically saying the word ‘AI’, which is something that gamers have often openly shown hostility towards. Regardless, the technology exists, and more and more studios are developing games with it, be it for code generation or generative art. We’ve just seen one of the biggest game engine operators, Epic Games, announce they’re pivoting to an AI-first devlopment approach.

The other question I have is around players themselves. Is this something for ‘us’ to tool around with and make things, and if so, what’s on the table here? Xbox-owned IP only? What exactly is ‘allowed’ in this new experiment? I suspect that at least this early stage, this is to see what’s possible from a tools/development perspective first, and won’t initially be focused on letting gamers create things on the fly. At least, not yet. I have asked Microsoft for comment here.

For those worrying about Xbox following keenly in Epic Games’ footsteps with an ‘AI-First’ approach, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma does provide some words of comfort in the light of this new Xbox Labs project.

“Our priorities aren’t changing,” she reaffirmed. “We remain committed to the 4Cs, to making great games, to our hardware and to being responsible stewards of IP and the communities built around it. LABS gives us a way to explore new technology without abandoning the work already underway. “

What do you think about this Xbox Labs project? Are you worried about the rise of AI in game development and creation, or is this just another new technology that will sort itself out overtime? Let us know in the comments below!

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