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[Lunatic_Gamer]

Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming, suggested that Muse could potentially preserve old games by recreating them from gameplay footage, making them playable on modern hardware without requiring the original software or engines.

This idea has been met with skepticism and criticism, notably from AI researcher and game designer Michael Cook, who labeled Spencer's comments as "idiotic."

Cook argues that Muse is more suited for helping developers test environmental changes rather than generating or preserving games authentically.

Critics, including gaming historians, further contend that using AI in this way does not constitute true preservation, comparing it to superficial replication rather than maintaining the integrity of original games.

Phil Spencer Posits Generative AI Tech Preserving Old Games, Called 'Idiotic' by Expert

Muse technology "not a solution" for game preservation

www.pushsquare.com

 

[MMaRsu]

Didnt we just have an entire thread dedicated to this?

 

[Celcius]

Phil is cooked, time for a new xbox boss

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

I’m glad he’s getting called out on this publicly because it’s a stupid fucking notion by a man who has done nothing but run Xbox further into the ground. Even Mattrick would’ve learned to shut up by this point.

 

[DeepEnigma]

"idiotic."

 

[Sooner]

AI needs to replace Phil Spencer

 

[mayham2199]

I’m glad he’s getting called out on this publicly because it’s a stupid fucking notion by a man who has done nothing but run Xbox further into the ground. Even Mattrick would’ve learned to shut up by this point.

I thought it was obvious he simply used that comment to combine something people hate (AI) with something people want\love (game preservation). That way people don't freak out about AI being involved in their games being made.

 

[N0S]

Damn Phil, get rid of that fat nipple on your eyelid.

 

[Sooner]

I thought it was obvious he simply used that comment to combine something people hate (AI) with something people want\love (game preservation). That way people don't freak out about AI being involved in their games being made.

Phil saying what he thinks people want to hear instead of the truth? Surely not...

 

[onQ123]

He is right though.


Someone could say " Create Pong like game using realistic stick & hockey puck "

Or " Recreate Sonic The Hedgehog with real Hedgehog with blue fur"

 

[adamsapple]

In before LectureMaster 's inevitable "my man adam" meme.

 

[Akuji]

Nothing wrong with that Statement. Were far from it with today ai Tools. But if humans can recreate games this way, ai surely can as well, eventually.

 

[Sooner]

He is right though.


Someone could say " Create Pong like game using realistic stick & hockey puck "

Or " Recreate Sonic The Hedgehog with real Hedgehog with blue fur"

At first I was like "no one is gullible enough to believe this nonsense". But, you proved me wrong. Well done.

 

[FrankWza]

]

 

[onQ123]

At first I was like "no one is gullible enough to believe this nonsense". But, you proved me wrong. Well done.

You clearly don't understand this situation

 

[yurinka]

I think in the future yes, it may even recreate 1:1 old games. But even in that case it will be more expensive than to just have an emulator and a ROM/ISO of the game.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

AI researcher and game designer Michael Cook Phil Spencer

 

[DeepEnigma]

I thought it was obvious he simply used that comment to combine something people hate (AI) with something people want\love (game preservation). That way people don't freak out about AI being involved in their games being made.

It's because he knows that's what matters with the core remaining to the ecosystem. It's more ambiguous easing the pain of their first party exodus.

 

[TBiddy]

If Muse is anywhere near as bad as Copilot is, I'd love to see the results of their attempts.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

I thought it was obvious he simply used that comment to combine something people hate (AI) with something people want\love (game preservation). That way people don't freak out about AI being involved in their games being made.

By causing a different but related freakout? The guy is not buying himself much of anything with whatever mental gymnastics he's trying to pull here.

 

[adamsapple]

If Muse is anywhere near as bad as Copilot is, I'd love to see the results of their attempts.

Same. They talked in high-concepts about using Muse to bring older games to new platforms that might not need engine porting etc.

The onus is on them to prove it.

 

[TheChumpNation]

One could just, you know, preserve games instead?

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

Phil . . . Idiotic? . . .

 

[TBiddy]

Same. They talked in high-concepts about using Muse to bring older games to new platforms that might not need engine porting etc.

The onus is on them to prove it.

Indeed. I'm not holding my breath to be honest.

One could just, you know, preserve games instead?

Microsoft have been doing a pretty good job with the BC program. I hope they will port it to PC, when they inevitably kill of their console hardware.

 

[adamsapple]

One could just, you know, preserve games instead?

Preserving data files without any means to play them is as good as preserving paperweights.

 

[Kvally]

I am jealous of all the AI developers in this thread.

 

[CLW]

Phil said it so yeah it came from an IDIOT

 

[panda-zebra]

I am jealous of all the AI developers in this thread.

People recognise sci-fi fanfic when they smell it.

This Muse AI nonsense is right up there in the credibility stakes as HoloLens was as a viable gaming platform, that's how batshit and disingenuous it is to be going off about this at a time their hardware is vanishing for shelves and their focus is on selling everything everywhere.

Satya's getting all foamy 'cause he can spout more shit to investors about just how on the ball his company is when it comes to AI and the the biggest publisher in the world sat on an IP mountain that can get AI to make games instead of 10s of 1000s of actual people is the biggest, juiciest, wriggliest maggot on a hook of them all.

But *shrug*... it's always a blinkered short cut to bigger and bigger and bigger unimaginable success as results get worse and worse and worse instead of just doing the hard work right, knuckling down and making good games which obviously seems like too much hassle with zero scope for massive return.

 

[Det]

Another developer who also asked to remain anonymous because they fear professional repercussions from speaking out against Muse seconded this sentiment. “It is gross that I feel I have to be anonymous because with the state of the game industry I also still need to beg them for money for a game pass deal, and attaching my name would reduce my chances,” they say.

“It seems to me that the real target of this model is not game developers but shareholders, to show that Microsoft is all in on AI, which has yet to deliver a product that anyone wants," the developer says.

 

[Det]

I am jealous of all the AI developers in this thread.

Wow, everyone is making fun of Halo "Monkey Craig" Infinite because they are jealous of Phill Spencer's incredible talent in greenlighting this huge success

Same energy

 

[Kvally]

Wow, everyone is making fun of Halo "Monkey Craig" Infinite because they are jealous of Phill Spencer's incredible talent in greenlighting this huge success

Same energy

Thank you for sharing! It's been a pleasure.

 

[CamHostage]

I think in the future yes, it may even recreate 1:1 old games. But even in that case it will be more expensive than to just have an emulator and a ROM/ISO of the game.

Or to augment old games to make them fresh and modern again, such as what NVIDIA is doing with model replacements and what's being done with AI-"upgraded" video and audio and textures. There has been a couple disaster stories like the GTA Remaster, but there's a lot of great remaster work out there to make old games pop on today's gaming platforms.

...But to call that "preservation" is questionable. "Restoration", maybe, but even then, you're not restoring what it was, you're recreating what you think it would look like had it been made today.

Just because we have Mario All-Stars doesn't mean NES Mario 1-2-3 can all be thrown in the trash forever because this "preserved" the Mario games.

 

[Durin]

Those comments really do make AI seem like snake oil, when you could temper it with more reasonable things that AI already does that are useful for game preservation...like automating decomping games to make them run like native PC apps, netting better performance vs emulating a console, and easier adjustments to effects like doubling the frame-rate doesn't double their animation speed, etc.

Literally yesterday I was downloading a few HD texture packs for some PS2 era games I threw at the PCSX2 emulator. Running old Ratchet and Clank games at 4k 60fps in widescreen, with textures that look the same as the original but not blurry and remove pixelated edges is great.

The Nvidia RTX Remix stuff using AI to help with adding better ray-traced lighting into older games that can massaged to still keep the original style...just showcase the already plausible stuff.

 

[Begleiter]

He heard that this was a thing people cared about but didn't understand the why or how. At least he isn't being openly contemptuous of anything older than 5 years old like Jim Ryan was.

 

[Danknugz]

FWIW, John Carmack has stated similar in the past

 

[jakinov]

Even though he calls the idea "idiotic". If you read what he says he's not fully saying it's not game preservation he thinks it's just thinks it's a very bad way to tackle that problem. Specifically that there are limitations and even if you overcome most those limitations it probably won't be as good as taking other approaches.

 

[onQ123]

At first I was like "no one is gullible enough to believe this nonsense". But, you proved me wrong. Well done.

You was saying?

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/grok-3-can-now-generate-rudimentary-2d-videogames.1681080/

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

without watching anything... what Phil said makes sense if you think about ir from a PR perspective and take into account the Xbox situation.

he is basically saying; your library will be playable thanks to A.I anywhere

 

[Ribi]

What experts? Name them. Who fucking idiots like patcher?

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

I am jealous of all the AI developers in this thread.

First sane post of the thread.

 

[fallingdove]

Preserving data files without any means to play them is as good as preserving paperweights.

So the solution is to build some shit AI approximation of the game instead of using widely available emulators?

This is Microsoft trying to create concentric circles with its largest investments, that’s all. It’s a stupid idea, and it should be labeled as such.

It honestly reminds me of the Crackdown cloud based rendering nonsense. Everyone knew that it was an infeasible idea meant to try and showcase Microsoft’s emerging cloud infrastructure. Phil “Doofus” Spencer propped it up and Xbox fans, like they usually do, slurped it right up.

 

[viveks86]

Looking forward to the day that all this overhyping blows over and these tech firms and their investors go chasing after the next big thing. It really distracts from the more meaningful and realistic applications of AI. It’s not “preservation” if it’s some approximated simulation. It’s a fun science project for the lazy kid who couldn’t code something on their own.

Like, how about making actual AI driven NPCs that aren’t brain dead and are fun and challenging to interact with? And don’t give me the “oh gamers don’t like it if they are smart” BS. That argument only applied before AI could actually be implemented to simulate human-like reasoning, behavior and errors. Nothing comes close to racing with something like GT Sophy. The same concept could extend to many other genres.

 

[ReBurn]

I'm inclined to be skeptical of the doc and the article here. Grok by X just released an update that's pretty much creating facsimiles of old arcade games from AI prompts, so it's not out of the realm of possibility that an AI like Muse could one day recreate a game in this fashion. I'd also be surprised of the good doctor actually knows the Muse roadmap.

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

At first I was like "no one is gullible enough to believe this nonsense". But, you proved me wrong. Well done.

Oasis

I agree that it's not preservation, but still.. he's not completely wrong conceptually.

 

[genesisblock]

What experts? Name them. Who fucking idiots like patcher?

It's right there in the OP. "Michael Cook"

 

[Ribi]

It's right there in the OP. "Michael Cook"

AI researcher and game designer Michael Cook

Sounds like a cuck

 

[genesisblock]

AI researcher and game designer Michael Cook

Sounds like a cuck

Pretty much all AI experts then.