Xbox business manager says devs not using AI shouldn't "be in the business of being a business"

A higher-up at Xbox is weighing in on the discussion around generative AI in game development, and he believes it's part of an inevitable future. Despite never having made a video game before, he's convinced vibe coding is the way forward for the industry.

In a series of posts on Twitter, Brandon Stirrup, a senior business strategy manager at Microsoft, explained his stance on the technological shifts within video games. "I vibe coded a bad but improvable game in two days and I only spent three hours actively," he starts.

"I’m telling you I tried it and it’s true - anyone can build a game," he adds, before asserting the direction of the headwinds. "There’s no point in a five-ten year plan absent AI in 2026. Everything you plan for will be superseded. You’re planning for a fake future," he writes.

Stirrup feels so strongly about this, he believes studios who aren't incorporating AI in some form are categorically worse off. "If you’re a game developer refusing to believe that AI has a place in your future, you should not be in the business of being a business," he tweets.

Amid his stream of consciousness, he asserts that if he's suddenly let go from his position, it's "because I told you the truth that nobody wants you to know." Included in that remit is the notion gen-AI can make a game from a prompt, and the assertions that "hundreds" of Xbox employees actively use AI, and "gaming is the only industry pretending to not use AI."

There are more tweets, but he goes around in circles on these beliefs, at one point providing a demo of the game he got some sort of chatbot to spit back at him after some prompting. It's a basic soccer sim that looks every bit like the three hours he says he put into it.

We can't verify his statement on how many people at Xbox use AI in their workflow, nor to what extent. Last year, it was reported EA was making chatbots mandatory across the company. Is Xbox operating similarly? What are the mandates and approval rates?

Multiple studios have either been caught out using AI assets or plainly admitted the tech was involved somewhere in the development process. The feedback to such is roundly negative. Of everything Stirrup says here, his claim devs shouldn't be in business if they aren't using AI is among the most flippant and easily untrue. Palworld, Wardogs and Slay the Spire 2 are three massive hits that'd like a word.

"I have never attempted to make a video game," he tweets at one point. He still hasn't, I'd argue, and he probably shouldn't make broad statements about those who actually do, either.

A Halo extraction shooter and battle royale hybrid game was reportedly scrapped during the development of Campaign Evolved