- Original Xbox console designer Seamus Blackley thinks Microsoft Gaming will be “sunsetted” under new management
- Blackley believes the job of the new Xbox Gaming CEO, Asha Sharma, is to “just gently usher all of these business units into the new world of AI”
- Sharma replaced former Xbox chief Phil Spencer following the announcement of his retirement last week
The original Xbox console designer and co-founder, Seamus Blackley, believes that Microsoft will eventually sunset its gaming business as the company shifts its focus to AI.
Last week, Microsoft announced that Xbox Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has retired from the company and been replaced by Asha Sharma, an executive of Microsoft’s CoreAI division. The shakeup also saw the exit of Xbox president Sarah Bond, Spencer’s would-be successor.
It’s a huge moment for the company, and Sharma has since shared a message promising “the return of Xbox”, while also remarking on AI and her commitment to content created by real people.
“As monetization and AI evolve and influence this future, we will not chase short-term efficiency or flood our ecosystem with soulless AI slop,” Sharma. “Games are and always will be art, crafted by humans, and created with the most innovative technology provided by us.”
Now, in a recent interview with GamesBeat, the original Xbox co-founder has said that he believes Microsoft’s ongoing AI push will eventually see the end of Xbox gaming as we know it, despite Sharma’s promises.
“Xbox, like a lot of businesses that aren’t the core AI business, is being sunsetted,” said Seamus Blackley. “They don’t say that, but that’s what’s happening. I expect that the new CEO, Asha Sharma, her job is going to be as a palliative care doctor who slides Xbox gently into the night.”
According to Blackley, Microsoft head Satya Nadella, who has invested a lot of money in the “transform model AI future”, believes that AI will “subsume games like it will subsume everything”, which could mean the end of the traditional gaming business.
“The job of all these people is to just gently usher all of these business units into the new world of AI,” Blackley said. “That’s what you’re seeing here. Whether or not you agree with it, whether you agree with AI having the potential to do that, whether AI will be successful, is a separate matter. But that’s what we’re seeing. That is in no way surprising.”
He continued: “It would have been shocking if they had somebody in there in a meaningful role who was passionate about games, passionate about the creator-driven business of games, because it would be in direct conflict with everything else Microsoft is doing. Microsoft is a company that is now about enabling its customers by enabling AI to drive things. That’s at odds with the auteur model of any art, but specifically of games. Microsoft doesn’t have the problem that Apple does, or that Netflix does, where they have an auteur-driven content model to manage. Games are the only place where they have a content business.”
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