Phil Spencer 'Excited' About Xbox Copilot, An AI Tool That Helps Players Finish Games

AI is going to be fundamental as time moves on, especially in this market, and I'm all for it. It makes absolute sense. This, alongside Muse, sounds very exciting indeed!

Concerns about data and AI in general aside...

I do like the idea of booting up a game after a long period and being able to get a reminder of what I was doing and maybe a refresh on some of the games unique controls.

Less so about it back seat driving when playing competitive games

I thought this would of been an ai co-op partner kinda thing sounds a bit disappointing!

There are a couple of things I always struggle with in games;

1. Parrying: so often I just cannot get the timing quite right. Indeed, I often go through a game which has parrying as a fundamental element without parrying because I am unable to get it right, which of course makes a difficult game even harder! 🤣 So, having the the AI coach me on the timing would be immensely helpful.

2. Combos: I'd like to say that it's my age that has meant that I am unable to remember combos, but the truth is I have never been able to remember them because I have ADHD which affects my short-term memory, which of course immediately means that I am unable to play any fighting games, which is a real shame because I would dearly like to have a go at them because I like a challenge. So, having an AI that prompts me in some way would be helpful, though I doubt that would be possible.

Still, I am curious to see what it can possibly do for me...

Lord, I wish they would stop making it difficult to decouple AI I don't want from the things I use.

I could see AI being quite useful in gaming! For example, recently with Avowed, even though I had some of the treasure maps, I still needed to google/youtube to help me out. Or if I'm missing just a couple of the totem pieces, same thing, I'm googling for the missing piece, just asking AI for help would be easier... Sure maybe I should just play the game without the extra help, but then again, people are posting how to find/do things because people want the help... You know, let me the player decide, how much frustration I want to deal with & I decide when & how much help I want.

There are a lot of games that would benefit from this. Age of empires is a good one to try out first. Tutorials are often so much information at once that a lot is missed or immediately forgotten. But if AI can analyze a battle in AoE and give feedback like too many archers or something afterwards it would really teach the game better.

I've played almost one thousand hours in civ 6 and still feel like I learn new things or strategies every time I play it. AI would be beneficial for analyzing decisions.

Hopefully it's easy to turn on and off and not too obnoxious. I remember The Last Of Us yelling at me the second I diverted slightly off the optimal path to the objective. I found it very annoying especially for a game built around scavenging. Hopefully AI would either recognize that i was exploring for loot or wait silently for me to request help.

@Ricky-Spanish That is a great idea and could very well be on the cards down the line. AI potential is limitless.

The stuff of nightmares is here…

If there is a way I can avoid looking up guides or Youtube for support with games, that would be great.

This is just another nightmare scenario for the industry.

@darylb24 Yes how awful, maybe you can let the AI just play the game for you at that point.

Poor AI Shark. Microsoft is way ahead of them. For those that may not know, the founder of InterAct Accessories was promoting this exact same thing.

https://www.youtube.com/@AiSharkgg/
More information here: https://youtu.be/btmQWGPbNZ8?t=1630

Some of the end of the world Ai comments lol, just before they released the Synthesizer they used to say the exact same things "It's the end for human musicians" etc , it ended up doing the exact opposite it created musicians, especially home musicians who would of otherwise never of touched a musical instrument in their life's. Oh and The orchestras are still all humans playing their own instruments .

We were warned

https://youtu.be/kaODgsl9XmA?si=kI5GpzJ1wfwhg6NY

@Kaloudz Yeah I'd love that for Xbox and AI co-op partner would be really cool it will be interesting to see how AI impacts gaming going forward.

The amount of money they put in this crap they could have invested into enhancing and FPS boosting backwards compatible games but now on top of games being made for the absolute lowest common denominator, we'll have annoying notifications about AI playing the thing for us. Riveting

@vrubayka people love when games play themselves , just look at $onys sucessful interactive movies & easy games like astrobot that a 1 year old could beat

@Ricky-Spanish I think so too. Your point raises an interesting discussion angle too. Yes, we have AI in games (and most of them are garbage) but a dedicated AI per-user account? Equivalent to adding a Guest Account for co-op, would be next level amazing. Having an AI Co-pilot that knows how we play across several games, and plays based on those factors, would be a massive feat.

@Kaloudz Exactly it would be unreal to have that that's what comes to mind when I think of AI in gaming a co-op partner you can train kinda with your gameplay that and npc's in games so you have a deeper loyalty system type thing maybe??
If it's used properly in gaming imagine the deep immersive worlds games could have individual to each player!!

Oh exactly what I wanted from my gaming experience, more AI and smartphone integration.

I could see that they do a simple thing with the 'completing games for you'. You get AI credits somehow, say, 1 credit per half-hour of gameplay and you can spend, say, 1 credit for 30 seconds of assisted gameplay.

There needs to, alongside encouraging people to use AI to aid them, an equal discouragement for people to just tell Copilot to 100% their games.
One easy discouragement is that you need to leave the game running since Copilot can't just pull up your game and progression.
A second easy one is not allowing people to get it for literally free.

Dumb. I don't want this in my games or have AI analyzing everything I do. I hope they do the right thing and allow for you to totally disable the feature which they'll probably have to do anyway for some EU countries.

I am sure those that want the features will love it. As long as they keep giving us options and allow for opt out, I am a happy camper!

That's a hard no from me..

Hope it’s not like Pokémon go which you were training an AI for another purpose entirely. Would hate all our data being used for military training purposes….

AI partner would be nice. But then again just make the games better,, no require a bot/second player even, or whatever else of design. We used to have cheats or debug menus or even just work arounds.

It's why I hate when they do this go 'oh this solution works' all because they can't look past how others see the factors and they go oh it has no issues, writes a whole new technology for something that just requires a few lines of code or a few tweaks to make it better visible or readable or understandable of context. XD

AI has a place but some of it's uses are hilariously stupidly used, over-engineered and more. XD Humanity stupidity due to lack of clarity.

They could just you know design a scale of levels. I've wanted different types of puzzles to be the thing for each difficulty for years in adventure games with them, but it's too much effort for designer/programmers to make happen. XD Among other things.

Games are easy as they can be nowadays for us players so to me they are boring as they are down to the bare minimum so if they still too complex it''s too much information or garbage skill trees, boring missions so basic of human character movesets it's boring or other factors but it is still fundamentally just up to the casual to just play and understand not want to rush or seek other things in a game for their reasons.

They work with what the devs have given them, we hardcore get that to the point when recommending/describing a game what a game's limits are, yet casuals have other things for reference/lack of understanding how narrow a game is while we know the limits/scale broadness. It's that easy to narrow down even.

That's the casual's fault not the game developers. Do they get that NO. Because they can't read humans when they should be able to it doesn't take a psychologist to do that. Just a logical enough brain/reading how people are and how they would approach things, how puzzles are designed, combat, stealth, missions, modes, etc. I look at game design as I play all the time. I do when I read books how characters/tropes are, events play out, I listen to the structure of music instrumentation/sampling.

It's really not that hard to end up doing it besides relaxing.

Explain the tutorials better, offer better gameplay that isn't boring, not a search engine help file/FAQ with responses because the staff don't have time or can't see past themselves design others can see issue in and get stuck/confused about it or are happy with the design and they refuse to change it. XD

Otherwise just make things better explained or is that too hard?

Some things we players/customers get, that casuals don't for reference. Or other factors. We get used to the personality/ins and outs better than they do for example of marketing or how gimmicks are used or whatever. Or we seek to answer the questions ourselves. How they explain goals/missions, sometimes it's dialogue, sometimes it's a blatant marker, it varies what it's asking of the player.

Part 2:
Even trying to explain how the portal works a few days ago was a challenge, it's really basic but confusing still. As if the YT app cast icon on the phone or setting up a TV with a QR code sure, anything too far it too much or they don't do that and don't get basic things.

How hard is it to say this tech has been around for 10-15 years, you have a screen, a moden/router or whatever in-between and another screen. Dual screens are complex but I guess explains it better of information use case then the same screen cast twice but some people are just too stupid to come up with reasons, keep asking and can't have a creative idea themselves as to why it matters because they go why do I need this, ask the same question because it doesn't effect their lives while other things just as pointless do. XD Logic and preferences.

Some things are just a 'because we can' and I get that but other times I mean that can apply to anything really. But people favour so many socialising and other nonsense yet don't question it. They have to say something/feel something. XD

In other cases both audiences get confused for different because it's not well explained in an app, game, whatever the case of what's compatible, what actions to take, etc. Process can be a pain if not communicated well. So an AI can help but it's mostly just human error or confusion of what is being asked of the human to do.

Copilot: Git gud

One more comment, if this gets used for cheating online multiplayer will not be feasible or fun for players in a lot of scenarios

I would rather have the Xbox One’s snap feature back…I loved having a walkthrough or guide open on the screen alongside whatever game I was playing

@Ricky-Spanish Could not agree more and I really think you're on to something here. This whole co-pilot thing sounds perfectly fit for what you outline. I know a lot of people hate on AI, but it really is going to be vital moving forward - in saving jobs, cutting down development time in the long-run, and much more. All the while we get great new features in the interim. It's gunna be a cool next gen.

So it seems to be a chatbot that looks up guides? So rather than googling "Baldur's Gate 3 Forge Boss guide" you ask this instead?

I guess Microsoft are funnelling billions into the tech so they've got to get SOME use out of it.

My god, people… Nothing about not having to think to play a game is good… Sure okay, some are going to use it responsibly, but just enough will use it as a crutch and eventually that in turn becomes full dependence. That is regression.

Dear Phil
No

That's it

@InheritNegative
The alternative is people surf You Tube, True Achievements, and other sites that can help them do what they want in a game...

All MS is doing here is making it so you don't have to switch to another UI to get the info you want. This can also be very helpful for new gamers that don't understand the game genre. Not everyone picks up a game and is ready to play it and have fun. Sometimes by looking at things like You Tube videos and such you understand the genre better and learn to have fun with it.

I do see what you are saying but to me it is just another option. I doubt they will make you have to use it.

I stated that back in 2017 and I'll repeat again (hopefully one last time):
GAMING WORLD NEEDS CORRECT WAY OF REWARDING AND INCENTIVES.
GAMERS WOULD BE MORE THAN HAPPY TO PLAY & COMPELETE GAMES, IN CASE "SONY/VALVE/MICROSOFT" TRIO IMPLEMENTS RIGHTFUL REWARDING MECHANISMS.
ACHIEVEMENTS MUST BE CONVERTIBLE TO REAL PURCHASING POWER, WHICH CAN BE USED FOR REFUND OR BUYING OTHER GAMES.

@InheritNegative BINGO!!!