Game Save #12 | AI Acceptance in Dragon Quest Games, The Return of Xbox, Community Spotlight, and More!
Taking a look at news about the reports of AI acceptance in Dragon Quest games, the positive return of Xbox, two incredible creators for the Community Spotlight, and more!
Welcome
Welcome to this Game Save!
Itās been a bit since my last entry in this series! Life has been extra busy as of late, on top of getting sick, but Iām excited to jump back into some gaming news thatās been on my mind to write about.
For today, weāll be diving into two gaming topics that Iāve been digging into lately. First up is some recent news about the creator of the famous Dragon Quest series being open to AI use in future games, and I wanted to share some thoughts on that. Weāll also look at the positive impacts that Asha Sharma and her new team at Xbox have seemingly had in the past few months, and the idea of Xbox turning around towards a good direction. To wrap up, I want to highlight two incredible gaming writers here on Substack and their awesome articles, as well as an update for The Saved Game!
Letās go!
Welcome to The Saved Game
First off though, I want to extend my warmest welcome!
My name is Joe, and Game Save articles go over some of the latest gaming news you may have missed along with some thoughts I have on them, reviews of games or accessories, as well as a Community Spotlight for articles that I loved! Read more here about my Substack page and content!
š§āāļø Take a look at my recent main article on the Town of Salem in Fallout 4
š¾ Check out my previous Game Save write-up
āļø Read my latest Cup of Joe blog post on recent anime Iāve been watching
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My Thoughts from Recent Gaming News
I have a few thoughts on the news today, so letās jump into it! First up, I want to go over the news on Dragon Quest franchise possibly embracing AI usage in the future ā and why Iām honestly not too concerned about it. After that, weāll take a look at what all Xbox has been cooking up lately, and the impacts that their new CEO, Asha Sharma, and her team have had.
Dragon Quest: The Growing Acceptance of AI in Gaming
An article popped up in the Japanese magazine called Toyo Keizai ā a business and finance publication ā that covered the creator of Dragon Quest speaking at a Google event.
Yuji Horii, who is known for the creation and contributions to the Dragon Quest series of games, was a Customer Speaker at the Google Cloud Next 2026 event in Las Vegas, Nevada. This event is held by Google to share new technologies related to cloud tools, data and security advancements, and emerging tech in AI ā as well as giving professionals a place to demo their work and forge new connections.
But, as someone whoās been invested in the Dragon Quest series lately, it was a bit surprising to see the creator of these games at an event like this. This led me to question: Why was someone like Yuji Horii giving a speech at a Google Cloud event?
According to that article, Horii was there to talk about the use of Googleās AI, Gemini, being installed inside a character in Dragon Quest X ā with it being developed collaboratively with Google Cloud. If youāre unaware, Dragon Quest X was first released back in 2012 as a massively-multiplayer online (MMO) game with a subscription model. Since then, itās received many updates and is still being actively supported, though it has never been released in the West.
Horii explained how a character named āChatty Slimeyā was created as a character, with it being powered by Gemini, especially Gemini Live ā the real-time voice AI from Google. This character is in the form of a standard Slime from the series, where a player can talk to it in-game and they will get a response back from it. Though not released yet, is has reportedly been undergoing limited user testing. Chatty Slimey was touted to answer playerās questions regarding in-game equipment or player status, and offer general guidance. From that article, Horii made these statements:
I think the inclusion of AI has further advanced our previous adventures. Your fellow travelers will respond wholeheartedly to your words, and AI will become more than just a useful tool; it will become your friend.ā¦
When I first created Dragon Quest, I wanted the lines of the townspeople to be as real as possible. Now I think AI can really answer questions and make things more human-like.
ā Statement from Yuji Horii at Google Cloud Next Conference, Toyo Keizai (Translated to English using Brave Translate)
Horii also mentioned how the use of AI characters could possibly be expanded into other series.
In the same article, the Global Director of Games at Google Cloud, Jack Buser, was excited to see the collaboration between Dragon Quest X and Google ā seeming happy about more game companies using AI in game development. The write-up also mentioned how Capcom partnered with Google Cloud to heavily reduce the number of hours to check for glitches in games.
From my perspective, I canāt help but feel a bit concerned about all of this whenever I hear of AI being implemented in games, especially as it relates to the impacts AI has on peopleās jobs ā though Iām honestly not too concerned about a feature like this with Chatty Slimey. Fundamentally though, it does feel like a big shift when a series as popular as Dragon Quest is starting to implement forms of generative AI, even if itās in the form of a helpful Slime.
It seems like a lot of this technology is inevitable with the large amount of AI hype everyone has seen lately. As reported by GamesBeat, the President and CEO of Sony Interactive, Hideaki Nishino, said in a recent earningās call that PlayStationās goal remains as āā¦the best place to play and the best place to publish,ā and continued further along by adding, āWe see AI as a powerful tool to help us in this mission.ā In an article by the Video Games Chronicles, they reported how the CEO of EA, Andrew Wilson, embraced the use of generative AI to make development more efficient, and saw the use of AI as an opportunity. On the flip side, Shigeru Miyamoto, the CEO of Nintendo, expressed a wary attitude about the use of AI, and that Nintendo āwould rather go in a different directionā so that their brand and creations remain special and unique, as reported by IGN.
As Iāve mentioned before in a previous Game Save article, Iām not entirely opposed to the idea of NPC characters using modern forms of AI to increase immersion within a gameās universe ā which I feel is the point of Chatty Slimey in Dragon Quest X. I also imagine that someone with the vast background of Yuji Horii would be exercising caution when it comes to implementing technology like this into a series as popular as Dragon Quest. In an interview with Game Informer late last year, Horii said that he considers āDragon Quest to be my child,ā so Iām really not concerned about the addition of this character, given how much he cares for this series. To me, I worry more about AI being heavily used in the writing, design, or development process of games compared to something like this, based on the information Iāve read and seen.
But, as a relative newcomer to the Dragon Quest series, I hope that the potential use of AI in future games will be limited as much as it can be, so that human-made creations truly stand out. A huge joy of playing games is seeing the creativity that people infuse into them and the passion they create them with.
We will see what the future holds, and I will be interested to see what the outlook of Dragon Quest games (and other games) will look like with the emerging and ever-changing advancements in AI.
The Return of Xbox
One gaming topic that has dominated my feeds for the past month has been the decisions being made over at Xbox.
Just as a quick recap: Phil Spencer, the former CEO of Microsoft Gaming who had led the Xbox brand for over a decade and had been at Microsoft much longer, resigned from his position. Succession plans had been drawn up, as reported by CNBC from a memo by Microsoftās CEO Satya Nadella. Asha Sharma ā a recent addition to Microsoft after joining in 2024 ā was to take over the CEO role of Microsoft Gaming. Her experience over the Core AI business of Microsoft seemed to raise alarm bells, though her message to Microsoftās gaming employees seemed to indicate the opposite, where she wrote about recommitting to the Xbox fans and players, and avoiding short-term efficiency with āsoulless AI slop.ā
As Iāve mentioned previously, I think that competition is a good thing. Even though Iāve primarily been a PlayStation gamer for most of my life, I hope that Xbox is able to turn around ā especially after facing declines in revenue within Microsoftās gaming sector late last year, with harrowing hardware sales going back even further, as explained in this IGN article.
However, since Asha Sharma arrived, there seems to have been some major improvements at Xbox.
One of the first major changes was the lowering of Game Pass Ultimateās cost down to $22.99 per month, compared to $29.99 that it had been set at previously ā at the cost of future Call of Duty games being available on day one. In a viral Tweet sent out in April, Asha had shared this news to generally good reception, especially now when prices rarely decrease.
The branding of Xbox was also changed to reflect a focus on the players, distancing from the previous āMicrosoft Gamingā name. In a message sent out to Team Xbox employees, both Asha and Matt Booty (Chief Content Officer) outlined the frustrations that players have experienced related to pricing and experiences, and changed the teamās name to āWe are Xbox.ā It was also noted that they would be reevaluating their approach to exclusivity, with a focus being placed on the community that built Xbox and to deliver a global platform for players and developers.
Then, just recently, Asha Tweeted out the need to ādeepen our connection with the community, and address friction for both players and developers.ā In doing so, she announced that they will be winding down Copilot on mobile, and completely stopping the development of Copilot on console ā an AI assistant that wouldāve allowed users to ask questions in-game for advice or recommendations, according to GamesRadar.
Honestly, all of these changes seem to be very positive in my opinion. Asha seems to have done well with understanding the user base, and identified common pain points that have been causing stress for many gamers over the past five years ā especially when other companies seem to be stifling their fan bases. Just recently, Sony announced another price increase for the PlayStation 5 consoles in a blog post, and worry has spread about DRM issues that would require regular online checks for game licenses ā though Sony refuted that and said that only a āone-time check is required to confirm the game's license,ā as reported by IGN.
Iām hopeful, and honestly a bit excited, to see people getting enthusiastic about Xbox again! Like I said, competition is good in my opinion, and I miss the days of my Xbox 360 ā a console that really seemed to stand out on its own with a collection of amazing games. Issues remain though, and I will be interested to see what Asha Sharmaās stance on exclusivity will be in the future ā especially after giving up many of their titles that are/will be available on the PS5, including Halo: Combat Evolved, Forza Horizon 5, and a lot more.
What reason will players have to buy an Xbox console in the future? Will these changes from the new leadership make a positive impact on peopleās perspective of the Xbox brand?
Time will tell, but Iām glad to see the positive changes so far, and I hope that Xbox will stand on its own again in the near future!
What Are Your Thoughts on These Topics?
How do you feel about the reported use of Googleās Gemini AI in Dragon Quest X? Do you feel like games should avoid using AI technologies altogether? Or are there exceptions?
What are your thoughts on the current state of Xbox? How do you feel about Asha Sharmaās leadership as of late? What do you think the future of Xbox will be?
Community Spotlight
I have two incredible creators and writers I want to highlight today!
First up is Evan, with his awesome series on community questions ā especially for the one he wrote that answered some questions I had! Then, Catās Controller Corner wrote up an amazing article I loved about cheat codes, and it made me think deeper about the lack of cheat codes in modern gaming!
Class Discussion in Gaming
Evan C. Moore wrote up an amazing series over the past four months that he recently finalized, called Class Discussion!
I was super excited to get the chance to ask some questions for this series a few months ago. Evan has an immense amount of experience in games ā both as a gamer and academic. So, I was beyond thrilled when he took the time to answer all of the questions I had! The specific article he wrote on my questions was fantastic, and it really offered so much insight into game studies that Evan teaches, and I learned a lot from it. I was even convinced to give God of War (2018) another try, and Iāve been having a blast lately with it! Evanās writing style and prose is so easy to read and understand, which makes absorbing his content both fun and highly informative!
If you havenāt checked this full series out yet, then I implore you to go take a look! Iām sure youāll learn quite a bit ā and perhaps heāll be able to convince you to pick up God of War too, like he did for me! Thanks again Evan for creating this series!
To Cheat or Not to Cheat
Cat created an incredible and absolutely fantastic article on cheat codes in gaming, titled āWe Need Cheat Codes Back!ā
This write-up really stood out to me because of my nostalgia with cheat codes growing up. Itās a sad fact that a lot of modern games donāt have cheats anymore, and Cat really brought up some excellent points and perspectives as to why that shouldnāt be. Itās something I didnāt really think about until I read this article. As I read through this, I couldnāt help but think back to games like Medal of Honor: Frontline, where cheat codes were actually super fun ā such as having bouncy grenades. I have many memories of visiting the very basic website of GameWinners back then and printing off sheets of cheats for various games, or even picking up an unofficial disc from GameStop that allowed cheats. Even nowadays, if you handed me a GameCube controller, my muscle memory would easily kick back in, and Iād press out some of those old codes!
The idea from Cat that some unserious fun could be brought back into the current game industry using quirky cheat codes was fantastic! The dumb, fun stuff from video games is always a joy to uncover, and honestly, I really wish that more modern games would include content like cheat codes for the fun of it.
Iād highly recommend opening up this article right now in a new tab and reading it all, and giving Catās Controller Corner a sub if you arenāt subscribed already! Thank you, Cat, for this amazing article!
Closing & Updates
Thank you all for reading, I appreciate it!
My schedule got all out of whack from personal stuff and getting sick, but I hope to be back to 100% soon!
To celebrate my one-year anniversary here on Substack in June, I plan on hosting another collaboration article! More information will be out soon on this, so stay tuned!
Otherwise, Iāll be getting back to my next article and upcoming blog post! Thank you again for reading!
If this article meant something to you and you enjoyed it, then please drop some love on it down below, share it with some friends or foes, and let me know your thoughts! I always appreciate the feedback š
See you all next time,
Joe
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