Skip to main content

Microsoft’s Allard Downplays Graphics

“Speaking in an exclusive interview, Microsoft’s J Allard has downplayed the importance of graphics in the next generation of consoles – saying that it’s creativity, not visual quality, which will sell the next 100 million consoles.

“We can’t get all hung up as an industry and say it’s all about graphic fidelity,” Allard commented. “I kind of put the ‘does it look better?’ secondarily. Not because it’s not important, not because I don’t think we’re not going to have a system to do it, but because we’re almost good enough.”

Read the full interview at Gamesindustry.biz

Of course Microsoft’s stance on graphics and power were the complete opposite with the original Xbox system since it is the most powerful of the current consoles available. But now that Sony’s Playstation 3 supposedly has more hardware power, Microsoft is touting that games and creativity win the race for your living room, not graphics power. Nintendo has been arguing this for years but to no avail.

Editors' Recommendations

Ian Bell
I work with the best people in the world and get paid to play with gadgets. What's not to like?
Microsoft is making AI game-writing tools for Xbox with Inworld AI
The art for Xbox and Inworld's AI partnership.

Microsoft announced a partnership with Inworld AI to assist in creating game dialogue and narrative tools for its Xbox studios.
The partnership is detailed in a blog post by Xbox's General Manager of Gaming AI, Haiyan Zhang. In the post, Zhang confirms that this technology is meant to work in random with Microsoft's own cloud and AI tech to create both "An AI design copilot that assists and empowers game designers to explore more creative ideas, turning prompts into detailed scripts, dialogue trees, quests and more," and "an AI character runtime engine that can be integrated into the game client, enabling entirely new narratives with dynamically-generated stories, quests, and dialogue for players to experience." 
No specific Xbox-owned studios were named, nor were developers from them commenting as part of this announcement, so it's unknown how much those developers are truly interested in embracing this kind of AI technology. In general, AI is a very controversial topic in creative spaces as artists and writers are worried that it will replace their jobs while creating worse art. AI leadership at Xbox doesn't seem to think that will become an issue, with Zhang explaining that the main purpose of this partnership is to "make it easier for developers to realize their visions, try new things, push the boundaries of gaming today and experiment to improve gameplay, player connection and more."
The blog post also teases that Microsoft will be willing to share these tools with interested third-party studios. Ultimately, it will likely take several years before we truly know what the impact or utility of this partnership is for developers at Xbox Games Studios, ZeniMax Media, and Activision Blizzard.

Read more
Microsoft has acquired Activision Blizzard: What does that mean for you?
The key art from when Microsoft finally acquired Activision Blizzard.

Microsoft now owns Activision Blizzard. After Microsoft worked to appease regulators and fend off litigation, the $69 billion acquisition first announced in January 2022 is finally complete. Now that Activision Blizzard is officially part of Microsoft and a sister company to Xbox Game Studios and ZeniMax Media, that raises an important question: What does this acquisition mean for you as a player?

Following this acquisition, Microsoft will own more gaming studios, the availability of Call of Duty and other Activision Blizzard franchises will shift, and unionization efforts within Activision Blizzard could gain a bit more ground. If you're wondering what happens next, here's our thorough examination of how the deal could impact players moving forward.
Microsoft's new game studios
With this acquisition, Microsoft will now own all the developers under the Activision Blizzard company. That includes the teams at Activision Publishing, Blizzard Entertainment, and King, the latter of which is the developer behind the wildly popular mobile series Candy Crush. The acquisition encompasses the following subsidiaries as well: Treyarch, Infinity Ward, Raven Software, Sledgehammer Games, High Moon Studios, Beenox, Toys for Bob, Activision Shanghai Studio, Solid State Studios, Demonware, Digital Legends, and Major League Gaming. Microsoft now also owns the rights to all of the games and IP Activision Blizzard previously released.

Read more
Microsoft finally closes its $69B Activision Blizzard acquisition
Xbox acquired Activision Blizzard on January 18, 2022, and gained the rights to Call of Duty, Candy Crush, and more.

It's done: Microsoft completed its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The $69 billion deal means that some of gaming's biggest franchises, including Call of Duty, are now Xbox properties.

First announced in January 2022, the blockbuster deal has faced tons of scrutiny from regulators like the CMA and FTC, with there being worry that it'd be unfair to competition in various parts of the game industry. Ultimately, Microsoft proved that wasn't the case, defeating the FTC in court and finally getting the CMA to retract its objection to the deal earlier today. When the CMA did that, an Activision Blizzard spokesperson told Digital Trends "The CMA’s official approval is great news for our future with Microsoft, and we look forward to becoming part of the Xbox Team.”

Read more