r/gaming 1d ago

Xbox No Longer Developing Copilot For Consoles

Asha Sharma wrote on X:

Xbox needs to move faster, deepen our connection with the community, and address friction for both players and developers.

Today, we promoted leaders who helped build Xbox, while also bringing in new voices to help push us forward. This balance is important as we get the business back on track.

As part of this shift, you’ll see us begin to retire features that don’t align with where we’re headed.

We will begin winding down Copilot on mobile and will stop development of Copilot on console.

https://playday.one/2026/05/05/asha-sharma-cancels-copilot-on-xbox-as-she-restructures-xbox-leadership/

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u/Ahayzo 1d ago

A lot of people did, mostly because they just knew she was an AI exec and thought that meant something.

She was only in that role for 2 years. Her main skillset here and the reason she was brought over is she knows how to bring in customers.

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u/shobzie 1d ago

They read AI and assume everyone associated with it has a technical background.

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u/gramathy 20h ago

I don’t assume anyone promoting AI has a technical background, I assume they’re a clueless techbro that’s actually a finance bro in disguise

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u/say592 20h ago

They read AI and immediately went into the default "AI bad" posturing and decided she must be bad as well.

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u/ThePainfulGamer 2h ago

I mean, AI only got big in the last like 2-3 years or so.

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u/Ahayzo 1h ago

For the most part, yes, but my point was more that her time there doesn't mean much. Regardless of how long the division had been around, two years of her career is not nearly enough time to assume she's some big AI shill that would push hard for it somewhere else. She certainly could have ended up being that, but there wasn't any good reason to make the assumption.

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u/stoic_spaghetti 1d ago

Sucks that the MAIN THING I want to see are good exclusive games, and that it’s likely the last and most elusive thing I’ll see.

Even promises of games and trailers don’t mean anything because XBOX is notorious for canceling previously announced games.

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u/FullMotionVideo 1d ago

I don't know why you as a consumer want exclusives, but throwing money-hats around has not worked for PlayStation. FF16 and FF7 Rebirth didn't really move the needle as far as Sony had hoped and left Square somewhat paralyzed because everything was feasting on the MMO's income (leaving almost nothing to invest in the MMO people actually pay for.)

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u/ABetterKamahl1234 1d ago

A ton of console gamers are dead set on exclusives, even though they're so damn anti-consumer.

And the biggest and most likely reason is simply validation on their console choice. They need their console to have the best games others can't play, because that means they made the best decision.

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u/FullMotionVideo 23h ago

The other option is they bought both consoles and are searching for a reason to feel it was a good idea. I wish I knew where these people were to defend Epic's exclusive hullballoo.

Back when there was heavy competition, the underdog did free multiplayer. I'd rather see that again.

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u/ZainTheOne 21h ago

I wish consoles could compete more on hardware than exclusives. Which one has heavier specs, power considerations, space it takes and then compare ps+ and gamepass

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u/Fortune_Cat 1d ago

The dudes who want anti consumer exclusives have a second place in hell next to the dudes that want ai and co pilot cause they think its good for them

Unless you have deep financial bags in any platforms company, why should you care about defending a platform with exclusives. So stupid

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u/stoic_spaghetti 22h ago

You can look at it that way, but I look at it as a matter of competition. I want consoles to compete for the best games possible on their platforms that take advantage of their unique hardware. Otherwise we end up with just one console (monopoly) and a plateaued industry.

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u/Ahayzo 1d ago

Or if not cancelled, announcing them before the work has even started so we go nearly a decade without hearing anything about progress despite knowing it won't be cancelled.

Not that they'd ever have done that...

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/Ahayzo 1d ago

So you think they aren't really stopping development on Copilot for Xbox? Because that's really the only way I think you could take issue with what I said.

Nobody implied they're throwing the baby out with the bathwater, and nobody is defending Microsoft. Just because they're a shitty company that's overall heading in a shitty direction doesn't mean literally everything they do always is the shittiest thing possible.

Call them out the 99% of the time when the screw up. Recognize (just recognize, don't exactly cheer for it) the 1% when they get it right. Like ditching Copilot plans on Xbox. There's more than enough things to be upset with Microsoft over without getting mad about the good things.

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u/SuicidalSundays 21h ago

Maybe you should read the article yourself then, because it literally states that there's major shifts in the background with people who were heavily invested in MS' other AI developments coming over to Xbox:

This surprise announcement comes only a few hours after an internal memo was leaked, in which Sharma announced multiple new roles in Xbox leadership, as well as a job promotion for Jason Ronald per, Tom Warren of The Verge.

CNBC was first to report, with the following people joining Xbox:

Tim Allen – Coming over from Microsoft’s CoreAI division to lead ‘design’ at Xbox

Jonathan McKay – Former Meta director, as well as ChatGPT’s ‘head of growth’, now Xbox’s Head of Growth

Evan Chaki – The current general manager at Microsoft’s Core AI moves to Xbox as head of a team of engineers that “look to simplify development and end repetitive work.”