// PC GAMER — GAMING
Xbox CEO looks to the future as Microsoft's console turns 25: 'A single person will soon be able to wield capabilities that once required entire nations'
Asha Sharma doesn't specifically mention AI in her 25th anniversary message, but I'm pretty sure that's what she's talking about.
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In a message marking the 25th anniversary of the first Xbox console, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma predicts that the future of gaming will look much like its beginning, "when a small team with a big idea could change how the world plays." And even though the term never actually appears in her post, yeah, I'm pretty sure she's talking about AI.
Sharma's message kicks off with a blast from the early days of Microsoft, beginning with a look at Microsoft Adventure, an adaptation of Colossal Cave "that looked more like MS-DOS than an early version of Minecraft," and the first-ever Microsoft staff photo that showcases some absolutely spectacular hair. From there it's a quick trip through Microsoft Flight Simulator, Quake, DirectX, and then in 2001, the original Xbox.
Naturally, there's a tribute to the "generations of employees, studios, developers, and partners" who helped create and grow Xbox, and the people who have played on various generations of consoles over the years.
"Since joining Xbox, I've heard stories of friendships that began over a session and lasted a lifetime, of people who met the person they would marry, and of parents now sharing the games they grew up on with their children," Sharma writes. "I've also heard about people who are no longer with us, and how much those hours spent playing together still mean to those who love them. Ultimately, this is why we exist."
From there, Sharma offers thoughts on the future of Xbox, and this is where I think it gets interesting: After comparing the size and capabilities of the original Microsoft Flight Simulator with the 2024 edition, she continues, "While modern games demonstrate the heights of human craft in ways unimaginable just decades ago, the cost, resources, and risk required to create them have grown just as dramatically. As a result, too many ideas never become games, and too many games fall short of what their creators imagined. For decades, this has been the unavoidable tradeoff of ambition. We must change this."
How exactly that change will come about goes unspecified, but my guess? She's talking about AI.
"Throughout human history, the scale of what we could create was determined by the people, capital, and resources we could command. That relationship is beginning to break," Sharma writes.
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