Last year, Microsoft decided that it wanted to bring its Copilot AI assistant into the gaming space. The company announced Copilot for Gaming in March 2025, with plans to release the feature for mobile and eventually consoles. But now, it seems that this will not be happening, as the current Xbox head has pulled the plug on the project.
In a recent X post, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma declared that the brand will be “winding down” Copilot on mobile. Additionally, the development of Copilot for consoles will be stopping altogether. According to Sharma, the feature does not fit in with the company’s vision anymore, so it has to go.
Since taking on the role, Sharma has walked back a couple of the changes made under the previous leadership. Last month, the company adjusted the pricing for its Game Pass subscriptions. In Malaysia, the cost of the PC Game Pass went down to RM20 per month.
So, while retiring Copilot for Gaming may seem like a sudden move on the CEO’s part, it does line up with her previous actions. That said, this doesn’t necessarily mean that Xbox is giving up on AI completely. In fact, Sharma has previously mentioned that the company is refocusing its AI efforts towards “solving player problems” like enhancing real-time graphics, among other things.
In addition to phasing out Copilot, Sharma announced some changes to the Xbox leadership. Specifically, she is bringing in some of the former members of Microsoft’s CoreAI division. These new hires will largely be handling the engineering and development side of things. So while AI probably won’t be a prominent feature on the consumer end, it may play a role in other areas, such as developer tools. Whether or not this is a step in the right direction remains to be seen, though.
(Source: Asha Sharma via X [1], [2], Engadget)
