I'm going to date myself here, but I do have a nostalgic fondness for ye olde game guides of yore, ASCII art and all. Though I'll never forget those community-based efforts, I am glad guide writing has become a more dedicated job role—especially as I continue to have my arse handed to me in Elden Ring: Nightreign. Alas, Microsoft reckons that its Gaming Copilot AI can do it better.
According to a recent Xbox Wire blog post, Gaming Copilot aims to make "gaming with Xbox more seamless and personalized, helping you get to gameplay faster, sharpening your skills, and being there when you need it and out of the way when you don’t." Announced back in March as Copilot for Gaming, it's essentially an AI chatbot attempting to answer all of your gameplay questions, from puzzle solutions to battle strategy. Gee, I wonder where the AI is pulling all of that insight from…
A Beta version of Gaming Copilot is now available on Game Bar for Windows PC, but only for a select few. Xbox Insiders enrolled in the PC Gaming Preview based in "the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, and other regions" can noodle with Gaming Copilot in English right now. Notably, the UK is missing from the full list of territories, likely due to local AI regulations.
This Beta follows an earlier test that ran via the Xbox mobile app, allowing gamers to "access Copilot on a second screen without distracting you from your core gameplay experience." This latest rollout sees Gaming Copilot now "directly embedded into the PC gaming environment."
That means you can either type out a question in a chat window overlaying your gameplay, or use "Voice Mode." Personally, I'd rather continue quietly typing out my gaming fumbles into a search engine, and not have to voice out loud, "How do I stop funnelling myself into dead ends in Blue Prince?"
Anyway, apparently, Xbox is quite proud of this voice mode functionality. When you voice a question, Gaming Copilot "can now use screenshots of your gameplay to provide you with more helpful responses." This means that rather than describing your problem in detail, the AI can look for context clues in your gameplay to offer "more relevant and timely support."
For me, I'd also rather the AI didn't see just how many times it took me to beat Nightreign's Everdark Caligo (which is still a bit of a work in progress, to be honest, but I'm thankful for Sean's guide pointing me in the right direction).
Xbox has also set their sights on bringing Gaming Copilot to a wider range of devices beyond PC and mobile, with work "underway for handhelds as we approach the launch of the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X."
Personally, I'm less than eager to welcome Gaming Copilot onto any of my devices. For one thing, an AI is simply never going to know a game like a real-life guide writer will. Furthermore, I can't help but wonder whether Gaming Copilot will simply make stuff up just because its LLM foundation dictates that it 'sounds' right.
After all, we've already seen ChatGPT say the Soundslice app had a feature that it definitely didn't, so what's stopping Gaming Copilot from leading players on an in-game goose chase for nonexistent characters, items, or even mechanics? As I'm based in the UK, I've yet to interrogate Gaming Copilot for myself, but I find it hard to believe it will ever have all of the answers.
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