Xbox’s AI Experiment, Epic’s AI-First Future & the $50 Nano Controller S7E30

So I wonder, we, I think we alluded to this a little bit kind of earlier in the episode, but Xbox is announcing Xbox Labs, a new initiative to trial emerging ideas and new technology.

Quotes.

This article's coming from John Hicks over at gamesindustry.biz.

Which one?

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has announced the creation of Xbox Labs, a new team within the organization to turn emerging ideas into things our players and developers can experience.

The unit is a small group of game makers, engineers, and scientists drawn from within the business, charged with rapid development, iteration, and testing the tools, um, products, and features that will be judged by the reaction of end users.

Word.

So...

Sorry, I had to like adjust the screen.

Man, live production things, you know? All right.

Gotta make sure the video viewers are happy, you know? But you know what, audio listeners?

What's back? [laughs] Yeah.

We'll give you some ASMR.

Um, all right, so "We'll build in the open, learn from what people do, and measure success by whether more people are playing and creating," said Sharma in the blog post.

She described the creation of Xbox Labs as spurred by recent mashups and code porting, um, many of which have been created using AI tools, which she said highlighted 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...

Excuse me, they challenge our existing business models, which is an interesting line we'll probably touch on in a little bit.

While Sharma referred to the rise of coding by AI agents and the recent glut of AI-developed game mashups that have been popular on social media, a company spokesperson clarified, uh, to GamesIndustry.biz that Xbox Labs did not have an explicit directive to use AI or any other technologies, and that its output would use it only to the degree that it would be beneficial or necessary.

Like Xbox XP, announced last week, Xbox Labs is a, um, centralization of existing initiatives rather than an entirely new endeavor.

Spokesperson characterized it as a f- as formalizing work around a number of ongoing R&D projects, including work like porting games to Apple Silicon, investing browser-based distribution... investigating browser-based distribution, particularly targeting the widely available WebGPU platform, and developing and supporting game modders.

No new staff have been recruited for the project.

The firm has a number of projects, some explicitly game-based and others more general, that have been in development for some time and would fall under the, um, remit of Xbox Labs.

Examples include making existing games playable through web browsers, uh, district game features, and expanding multiplayer experiences.

Spokesperson said that Xbox Labs had no product announcements currently planned, and it would not have a fixed route to users.

While some labs projects may manifest as features made available to the Xbox Insiders program, others may target different user bases and would be distributed appropriately.