微软成立新“XBOX Labs”部门以应对近期模组与游戏反编译兴起

As of recent, XBOX boss Asha Sharma has remained adamant on the new path carved out for the platform. At its most recent XBOX townhall via Windows Central, Sharma discloses that the selection of changes already made is showing growth generating for the platform and its IPs. She also disclosed that a new push for XBOX is to platform Blizzard Entertainment’s Battle.net as the launcher proves sustainability alongside the likes of Steam.

More on the matter of XBOX once more, Sharma did speak briefly on Project Helix. While not going into specifics, she expressed it as a ‘family of devices.’ “There is not one device that fits all. We will certainly have a great console first, but we also know that many players will be on the go.” Among the claims of Microsoft selling off XBOX, Sharma even responded to the claims: “we will do whatever it takes,” she told The New York Times.

One major talking point in the industry is the current AI modding & decompiling of games. Rather than combating it directly, Sharma has formed a new division – XBOX Labs. She describes it to embrace these experiences without abandoning its 4C initiative; spearheaded by XBOX chief technology officer Scott Van Vliet.

In recent weeks, we’ve seen games rapidly decompiled and rebuilt to run on hardware they were never originally designed to support. 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. Perhaps more surprisingly, we’ve seen many of the biggest games in the world have been remixed into the source code of another.

“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. 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. To explore these possibilities, I’ve asked Scott to stand-up XBOX LABS, a small group of game makers, engineers and scientists whose job is to turn emerging ideas into things our players and developers can experience. We’ll build in the open, learn from what people do, and measure success by whether more people are playing and creating.”

Sharma adds: “Coding became the first major workload for agents because they can write, run, and test software. Games share many of those same properties, and people spend more than 72 billion hours a year playing XBOX games, roughly five times the estimated time spent writing code worldwide. We’ve spent 25 years learning how to make great games, and I want our game makers to help shape what these new technologies make possible. As we learn, we’ll share the tools we build with developers across the industry, just as we always have.”

Are you interested in what the end result will be from XBOX Labs?

Source: XBOX Wire

The post Microsoft Forms New ‘XBOX Labs’ Initiative In Recent Rise Of Mods & Game Decompiling appeared first on Rectify Gaming.