Brandon Stirrup wants you to know that he’s done pretending. The senior business strategy manager at Microsoft went on a posting spree to assert that use of AI at Xbox is widespread and that he no longer cares who knows it, even if it costs him his job.
“I’m happy to take the hit if it means hundreds at Xbox can stop pretending that they’re not using AI,” he posted on his X account. “It’s time to accept and move forward.”
Seems like he took some kind of hit because his several-post-long screed extolling the inevitability of genAI in game development has been deleted along with his account. According to sources speaking to PC Gamer, Stirrup deleted his account due to the amount of replies he was getting. Thankfully, his thread had been screenshotted and is making the rounds on X and Bluesky.
“Gaming is the only industry pretending not to use AI,” he wrote, though gaming is hardly pretending, which you can see if you look at the lion’s share of demos coming out during the current Steam Next Fest or those in the recent past. And it seems like every day there’s news about a game getting caught not disclosing that AI was used in production, or a publisher talking too much about how they are using it.
“Look, if I’m fired tomorrow it will be because I told you the truth that nobody wants you to know. You can make a game with a simple prompt and yes you can make custom, tailored games. Everything you want in a game is right there for the taking, for better or worse,” Stirrup said.
My guy, we know that. We know that so hard that your own company launched Xbox Labs to get ahead and take control of that very “Put one game in another game and play it in your browser” trend. You aren’t telling any radical truths here, just reinforcing what all the moneyed interests have been trying to instill in consumers since the metaverse and NFTs—get on board or get left behind.
And looking at your LinkedIn page, which features numerous mentions of how AI is integrated in your daily job functions, yeah, this screed makes sense.
“Gaming is the only industry where leaders are afraid to talk about AI,” he continued. That one’s true, and Stirrup does acknowledge that “negative sentiment” is the reason why but also asserts that “everyone else accepts reality.”
Kinda gives the game away, doesn’t it? At the end of the day, Microsoft and Xbox are businesses. Businesses (at least for now) still need consumers that want to buy their shit and guess what, homey? Gamers. Fucking. Hate. AI. And that sentiment apparently still means something, at least for now. Stirrup’s posts seem to indicate he wants to live in a world where consumers happily accept whatever fiat the corporate overlords mandate—a reality that as consolidation continues, inches ever closer to fruition—one where they no longer have the choice to say, “No, fuck your AI bullshit, I’m going somewhere else.”
Shotgun-disclosing your blanket adoption of the tech is one very good way to get customers, customers Xbox sorely needs at this fraught moment in its history, to turn away from you in droves.
“Users want the truth,” he wrote. “We’re using AI.”
Oh, well shit. Another reason why neither the thread nor the account exists anymore.