Being a personal fan of video games isn’t necessarily required to succeed in running a gaming company.
What the F***, yes it is.
(that's arstechnica saying that though, not the new xbox boss person)
this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2026
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The whole reason we’re in this mess with AAA is solely because of suits with no gaming interest whatsoever making all the decisions to please shareholders
Wait wait but what if we made fps games like casinos?
And, stay with me now - manipulate children to create generational gambling addicts - ooohohoo think of all the easy money flowing in!
It's like when new logitech ceo (ex-unilever, non-tech) comes up with the idea of subscription mouse.
There are exceptions to this. There are wonderful game designers that personally don't play video games.
I really doubt this woman is an exception though
It sucks to say, but I'd actually wager there's more game developers and designers that don't play games regularly than ones that do. The time and mental investment necessary to create games doesn't tend to leave much room for enjoying them.
But probably really should at least consider yourself a fan of games in the industry, even if you can't keep up playing the latest and greatest.
I'd go further and compare this to actors who many times will never watch the finished product. IIRC, John de Lancie voiced Discord in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic but never watched any of the episodes until the fandom really took off. He was surprised this small role he forgot he even did gained such popularity! I'm sure he's seen a number of episodes by now, especially since he later reprised his role
Hiroshi Yamauchi wasn't much of a gamer, but he made Nintendo a gaming juggernaut.
He also had honor and dignity. Rare attributes in company leadership these days.
Speaking with Variety, Sharma noted that “AI has long been part of gaming and will continue to be,” before adding that “great stories are created by humans.” The interview comes after Sharma promised in an introductory memo: “We will not chase short-term efficiency or flood our ecosystem with soulless AI slop. Games are and always will be art, crafted by humans, and created with the most innovative technology provided by us.”
Shocking take from a microsoft employee making a public statement. I had thought their leadership were all aboard the moron express to slopville.
“AI has long been part of gaming and will continue to be,”
This is such bullshit. AI has only really invaded gaming in the past couple of years, but she makes it sounds like AI (in its current iterations) has been around been around forever.
I think they're using AI as the umbrella term there, rather than referring to LLMs and generative slop. The term has been used to mean many different things over the years, including the decision trees that drive npc movement and action.
Behind closed doors and away from the press they are going to be all in on the AI slop.
Except shampoo brands don’t invalidate copyright protections for their games.
If you use ai to create any part of a game, that part doesn’t have copyright/IP protections. If you don’t know what parts that is, the entire thing loses said protections.
Details.
Ever since the XB1, Microsoft's gaming division has been everything but games.
True. Its been the Aquisitions Team.
Microsoft's really been on that "I'll do everything in my power to make number go up that isn't making a better product" grind for a long time now yea
Weird, her former division was in charge of exactly that.
It was nice knowing Xbox while they lasted…
Someone needs to make an ex-Xbox for exes of Xbox.
looks down at Steam Deck in lap
I'll get a sharpie.