One tweet about “extremely interesting predictions,” coupled with a video, created pandemonium among the whole gaming community. And if the pandemonium was bad, this was the worst. The official Xbox Twitter account hinted at something in the teaser, and in under five minutes, a group of game pundits worked at deconstructing an obviously AI-generated abomination.
Wow, now that’s something to discuss. The video supposedly showed some retro-style footage of children predicting the future of gaming, but it was pretty much AI content. Gamers noticed it right away. The responses poured in fast and furious: from “That’s pretty gross” to “What in the AI slop is this shit??” It was declared by several to be “weird as hell” and “oddly disturbing,” with verizon-shaped shadows cast much stronger upon this one.
Refutations came right away and very sharp. @NikolaNikolov16 said, “Wow, who approved use of AI slop for advertisements?” Meanwhile, @HadiganMatter questioned, “What in the AI slop is this shit??” The term “AI slop” got repeated ad nauseam, mapping the descent of gamers into distrust of AI-generated content.
But it was not just about the quality. People were actually disturbed. @FoxHalo stated, “I don’t know why, but that video is oddly disturbing,” and, honestly, I am with him. There’s something about AI-generated human faces that just doesn’t quite sit with me. @PLT_cheater went on the ethics road, arguing that,”every clanker generated face is just a bunch of real people’s faces overlaid over each other with transparency. each face there is probably about 1000 or more real children whose likeness is being used without consent.” That is… a pretty serious point to make.”
Technicality prepared for more debates. Some thought the out-of-sync audio was inclusion, with @Kmoody2003 saying: “just a fun explorations, that they cooked up over the weekend without having to spend 100k to do an video.” Yet others denied it. @AceParty said the opposite: “the use of black-and-white, vintage-style footage was intentional to mask the AI-generated nature of the visuals, but it didn’t work.” In other words, everyone saw it was AI, no one was impressed.
Excuse me, but the predictions themselves were a nightmare, so very irritating to people. And the gamers were fast in throwing huge objections toward the apparent push for an all-digital future the video was passing. @The_Stebe proclaimed, “I VERY much like to have disks and cartridges in the future thank you very much. Physical for life,” with a crying face emoji to perfectly encapsulate the mood. @ChaoEmbobao went on to explain, “How about NO? Get your things together Xbox. You’ve always cared for OPTIONS and GAME PRESERVATION. Only streaming is not the way, keep discs, keep digital purchases and offer streaming at the same time.”
That moment just couldn’t have arrived at a worse time for Xbox. @decmally predicted, “I predict you disband another studio for no reason,” which hurts even more in light of recent shutdowns. And @kiritosnightsky eloquently expressed what many feel: “Not only using garbage AI, but pushing for all digital? Holy shit, you guys make it so hard to keep supporting this platform 😑.”
The replies, however, were hilarious. @_Cool_World claimed, “You killed a family of squirrels generating this AI shit,” which is… absurdly specific? @XSaltedOne offered an even wilder theory: “Nah, they used quantum computing to travel back in time. I believe the 3rd kid is your great, great grandfather. You just have to squint a little and picture them without hair.” Honestly, that could be more convincing than whatever this mess was meant to be.
The demand for deleting the tweet came swiftly. @DFilms92 tagged Xbox executives, saying, “Holy cringe. Please delete this @XboxP3 @BondSarah_Bond @aarongreenberg @satyanadella” and then, “Y’all still got time to delete this.” But as of now, the tweet remains amply retweeted and liked in distaste.
What is fascinating here is that this got rejected as fast as it could have by the gaming community. No real defense for the AI concept was ever put forth. Even the critiques that didn’t mention it directly still attacked it. @iRetonGrey said, “What they missed is that game companies will become greedy as fuck. They will sell overpriced unfinished games.” Which, honestly, is a fair point.
The overall situation is a fantastic example of the rising tension between companies seeking to use AI as a cost-cutting measure versus gamers who can spot AI content from a mile away and really hate it every single time. It isn’t just about quality-and that quality was definitely questionable-it’s about authenticity. Gamers want to feel like companies really put effort into it and didn’t just throw some algorithm together.
The resistance towards all-digital-future messaging further illustrates that players are still hugely attached to physical media and ownership. Hopping on the subscription and streaming train led by everything moving aside, a significant part of the community still embraces physically owning their games instead of just renting them.
So, what does that leave Xbox? In an almost never-ending PR flack. The crowd was so overwhelmingly against it that any good that could possibly come out of it is hard to envision. However, if they intended to get people talking about the future of gaming, in a way they did.
That is a pretty clear message to say that gamers are watching and calling the company out is more than welcome when something feels lazy, inauthentic, or just downright creepy. Could AI be the future? Were that response any indication, it should have been handled with much more care and much better quality control. Or… just don’t use AI for your ads? Just a thought.
The tweet is still up; thus, if you want to witness the disaster from the beginning, go ahead. The replies are much more entertaining than the actual content, and that says it all. The next time, Xbox should stick to actual games, really.
