Xbox AI plans already getting roasted by devs: Nobody will want thisMichael BeckwithPublished February 20, 2025 5:30pmUpdated February 20, 2025 5:30pm Are AI tools really for developers benefit? (Microsoft)Game developers have publicly hit back against Microsofts new AI tool, with one suggesting the company is being led by yes-men.For as much as the idea of using AI for game development has been mocked and derided by regular gamers, its clearly something several publishers are interested in pursuing.Just this week, Microsoft announced a new AI development tool called Muse that its training on its own Xbox games, with the hope that it will empower game creators.Maybe Microsoft sincerely believes such a tool will be beneficial for developers and make their lives easier, but a number of game creators have declared theyre not interested in Microsofts AI promises or anyone elses for that matter.Speaking with Wired, one developer, who remained anonymous, said, [Microsoft] dont see that nobody will want this. They dont care that nobody will want this.They even suggested that theres little internal pushback because people are afraid of speaking out against it: Internal discussions about these sorts of things are quiet because everyone fears being against this and losing their jobs due to the tumultuous time in our industry.Another anonymous developer believes that the real audience for Muse is not game creators, but shareholders: to show that Microsoft is all in on AI, which has yet to deliver a product that anyone wants.That is certainly a believable statement, as everything from live service games to mass layoffs have more to do with performative actions for investors than it does the actual needs of a company.The developer also said they asked for anonymity because they worry facing repercussions from Microsoft: I also still need to beg them for money for a Game Pass deal, and attaching my name would reduce my chances.If this is accurate, it perhaps recontextualises Microsofts statement about interviewing 27 studios to make sure the research was shaped by the people who would use it.David Goldfarb, founder of Metal: Hellsinger studio The Outsiders, is far less concerned with upsetting Microsoft, bluntly posting F*** this s*** on X in response to the news.He followed up with a more detailed explanation of his distaste for using AI, telling Wired, The people who are promoting it are doing it to reduce capital expenditure and whether they intend to do it or not, are effectively disenfranchising and devaluing millions of collective years of aesthetic effort by game devs and artists.The primary issue is that we are losing craft. When we rely on this stuff we are implicitly empowering a class of people who own these tools and dont give a f*** about how they reshape our lives.Elsewhere, AI researcher and game designer Dr Michael Cook also wrote up a response to Muse with his own blog post. Its mostly to clear up misconceptions about how Muse actually works, but Cook did share his own criticisms.More TrendingFor starters, while Cook does find the tech impressive, he doesnt think Muse is at all practical, at least at this stage, since the demonstrations Microsoft shared are based on years of player data: Most developers couldnt afford to do this, and the ones that could do not have years and years of player data to show an AI, because by definition if they did their game would already be out.Cook was especially critical about Xbox boss Phil Spencers comments, about how an AI model can help with preservation by feeding it gameplay and video data from older games and thus emulate them on current hardware.He bluntly called these claims idiotic and absolutely not a solution for game preservation, adding that by that logic, a childs drawing of the end cut scene of Final Fantasy 8 is preservation.Preservation is not just about gameplay, and its not just about video, continued Cook, A generative model of what game footage maybe looked like once might be a nice curio on the side of a real preservation process, but it is always going to be inferior to other ways we approach the problem. The YouTube announcement for Muse currently has only 489 likes compared to the 2,100 dislikes (Microsoft)Emailgamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below,follow us on Twitter, andsign-up to our newsletter.To submit Inbox letters and Readers Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use ourSubmit Stuff page here.For more stories like this,check our Gaming page.GameCentralSign up for exclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content.This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy