Xbox creates Labs group to explore AI-powered game ports

Microsoft is forming Xbox Labs, a small group of game makers, engineers and scientists tasked with exploring new ways to make games available across devices and to help players create and remix games.

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma said the group will build in the open, learn from how people use its work and judge success by whether more people play and create. Recent experiments have included Windows PC games adapted to run on Apple Silicon or in browsers, as well as games remixed into the code of other titles. Some modders use AI models in this work.

In a memo, Sharma said WebAssembly and WebGPU support is approaching 90% of global browsers. She also said people spend more than 72 billion hours a year playing Xbox games, roughly five times the estimated time spent writing code worldwide. Microsoft has spent 25 years learning how to make games, she wrote, and plans to share tools it develops with industry developers.

Sharma described easier access to games, new life for older titles and more opportunities for players to create as possible benefits, even when they challenge existing business models. The memo did not explain how Microsoft will handle unauthorized use of its intellectual property in game modifications. The Verge said Microsoft did not respond to its request for comment before publication.