An Xbox manager has deleted his X account after claiming the games industry pretends not to use AI. Monster Hunter Wilds opens Switch 2 pre-orders, a leaker puts the PlayStation 6 above $1,000, Ken Kutaragi backs the end of game discs and Amazon takes Luna to more countries.
Xbox manager deletes his X account after saying the games industry pretends not to use AI
Brandon Stirrup, a senior business strategy manager in Microsoft’s Xbox division, has deactivated his X account less than a day after a thread in which he argued that the games industry was pretending not to use artificial intelligence. Stirrup began posting on 18 October, saying he had built a deliberately rough game with an AI agent over two days, with only about three hours of active work, and that anyone could now make a game.
He wrote that gaming was the only industry slowing the shift because players viewed AI negatively, and that developers who saw no place for it should not be in business. Saying he was ready to be fired, he added that hundreds of Xbox staff used AI, as every company did. A source at Xbox said he removed the account because of the volume of replies; no disciplinary action has been confirmed, and he posted from a personal account rather than an official channel.
Generative AI has become one of the most divisive issues in games. In a 2025 Game Developers Conference survey of 3,000 developers, 52% said they worked at companies using such tools, while the share who felt negatively about AI rose to 30% from 18% a year earlier. Valve requires games on Steam to disclose AI-generated content, and voice actors in the SAG-AFTRA union ended a strike of almost a year in 2025 after winning stronger control over AI use of their voices.
Monster Hunter Wilds opens Switch 2 pre-orders and releases a free prologue demo
Capcom has released a free prologue demo of Monster Hunter Wilds on the Nintendo Switch 2 eShop and opened pre-orders for the port, which launches on 4 December. The company said on 20 October that the game would cost $39.99, with a limited-time pre-order price of $29.99, and players who order by 3 December will also receive the Guild Knight Set layered armour and the Hope Charm talisman as bonuses.
The demo includes the full character creator and early missions in the Windward Plains, and it can be played offline or in local multiplayer. Progress carries over to the full game, giving players a chance to test how the port performs before release. A physical Deluxe Edition with the base game and cosmetic extras is available to pre-order from retailers, and an expansion called Ascendance will arrive on all platforms in 2027.
Developed by Capcom on its in-house RE Engine as the successor to Monster Hunter: World, Wilds was released on PlayStation 5, Windows and Xbox Series X/S on 28 February 2025, with cross-platform play. It sold more than 8 million copies within three days, making it the fastest-selling game in Capcom’s history. The Switch 2 version follows other Capcom conversions for Nintendo’s newest console, including a well-received port of Dragon’s Dogma 2.
Leaked cost estimates suggest the PlayStation 6 could cost more than $1,000
Sony’s next console, the PlayStation 6, could cost more than $1,000 because of soaring memory prices, according to the hardware leaker known as KeplerL2. Writing on the NeoGAF forum, the leaker said RAM and NAND storage alone would cost Sony more than $680 per unit, after an earlier estimate put the console’s total bill of materials at around $960. The figures are unverified, and Sony has not confirmed the machine’s specifications, price or release date.
The leaker said GDDR7 memory, expected to cost about $3 per gigabyte when Sony and Microsoft began designing their chips, now costs $20 to $23 per gigabyte, which would also affect Microsoft’s next Xbox, known as Project Helix. Demand from AI data centres has squeezed supplies. One report points to a launch in late 2027, though Sony chief executive Hiroki Totoki has said no date has been set. Valve’s Steam Machine already starts at $1,049.
The PlayStation 5 launched in November 2020 at $499.99 with a disc drive and $399.99 for the Digital Edition, and a more powerful PS5 Pro followed in November 2024. Sony has in the past accepted thin or negative hardware margins to build its user base, and the original PS5 was reportedly sold at a loss at first, though the company has recently put more weight on making its hardware profitable. Sony plans to stop pressing discs for new games from January 2028.
Ken Kutaragi says anger over the end of PlayStation game discs is a matter of mindset
Ken Kutaragi, who led development of the first three PlayStation consoles, has backed Sony’s decision to stop producing game discs, describing the backlash from players as a question of mindset. Speaking at the Game Republic New Horizons event in Middlesbrough, he said he understood that discs had come to symbolise owning a game, but argued that keeping them going made no economic sense. Smartphone users, he noted, do not expect physical media to keep their content.
Sony announced on 1 July that it would end disc production for all new PlayStation games in January 2028, with later releases sold only in digital form; games already released on disc are unaffected. Some fans have called for boycotts and raised concerns about preservation. Kutaragi said many current Sony executives came from streaming firms such as Gaikai, called today’s very expensive hardware unhealthy, and suggested AI and cloud computing could one day make consoles unnecessary.
Born in Tokyo in 1950, Kutaragi is often called the father of the PlayStation. He oversaw the original console and its successors as head of Sony Computer Entertainment until stepping down in 2007, shortly after the PlayStation 3 launched. He had earlier worked on liquid crystal displays and digital cameras at Sony, became chief executive of the AI and robotics start-up Ascent Robotics in 2020, and has served as an outside director at Rakuten and Kadokawa.
Amazon brings Luna cloud games to Prime Video in more countries
Amazon has expanded its Luna cloud gaming service into the Prime Video app on Fire TV in four more countries, with eight more to follow next month. Prime members in Canada, France, Italy and Spain can now play games from a Games tab in the app at no extra cost and with nothing to download or buy, the company said. Austria, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Sweden are due to gain access in November.
Once the rollout is complete, Luna will be available through Prime Video in all 14 countries where the service operates, without the need for a console or gaming PC. The library includes Star Wars: Galactic Racer, Hogwarts Legacy and Assassin’s Creed Mirage, along with casual titles such as Bluey: The Videogame, plus a GameNight collection of party games, including Clue and Ticket to Ride, that players control with smartphones by scanning a QR code.
Amazon opened Luna to invited users in October 2020 and launched it fully in the United States in March 2022, followed by Canada and parts of Europe in 2023. In October 2025 it folded its Prime Gaming benefits, formerly Twitch Prime, into the Luna brand, and in July 2026 it added Luna to the Prime Video app in the United States and Britain. The service competes with other cloud platforms, including Xbox Cloud Gaming, PlayStation Plus streaming and GeForce Now.