Xbox Turns to Licensing as Age Checks and AI Reshape Play

Maddie Agne, writing for This Week in Videogames, argues that the browser games once aimed at girls have decayed from earnest products into slop. She traces the genre to the post-1983 crash, when the industry narrowed its idea of its audience and, in the words of RMIT lecturer Stephanie Harkin, built an "edgy, aggressive culture" that excluded many girls. CD-ROMs and then browser sites such as GirlsGoGames, Stardoll and GirlsPlay gave girls a space of their own. Carly Kocurek of Illinois Tech notes that Mattel designed for hand-me-down computers because girls would control those machines.

Agne grants that cooking, fashion and boy-centred games were sexist in their own right, but says the genre also offered adventure, sports and art. Harkin credits the developers, many of them women doing focus-group research, with sincerity, even if their parent companies were more cynical. Today's offerings, with titles like Crazy Aunt: Slap and Punch and Rainbow Bridezilla Wedding Planner, keep the dress-up and puzzle mechanics but drop any wish to serve young players. Agne reads that as a sign of how the industry regards young girls.

CounterpointCritics of the 'girl games' label, including some of the researchers Agne quotes, argue that gendered marketing reinforced stereotypes and walled girls off from mainstream games. Others would say the decline reflects ad-funded browser economics rather than any attitude toward girls.

Jillian C. York and COMPASS Fellow Sheila B. Lalwani argue for EFF that age verification debates miss a basic question: what happens to people who cannot prove their age at all. They list a fast-moving set of rules: Australia's under-16 social media ban, India's parental-consent requirements, the UK Online Safety Act, age verification laws in more than half of US states, and an EU expert report recommending a ban for under-13s.

The authors cite roughly 15 million US adult citizens without a driver's license and 2.6 million without any government photo ID. Globally, they cite World Bank figures of 850 million people without ID, concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, with women 8% less likely than men to hold one. They point to stateless and marginalised groups, including the Rohingya, Kuwait's Bidoon and Egypt's Baha'i, and note that Nigeria has registered about 64 million people, just over 30% of its population. Their conclusion is that age verification is a structural barrier to expression and access to information, not a neutral safety measure.

CounterpointEFF is an advocacy group that has long opposed mandatory age checks. Governments and child-safety campaigners backing these laws, including regulators in Australia and the UK, argue that harms to minors justify them and that alternatives to ID-based checks, such as facial age estimation, can reduce exclusion.

Riley MacLeod at Aftermath takes a sceptical look at Whenere, Neal Stephenson's company, which is bringing Pride and Prejudice to Fortnite as a script-and-film tool for fan stories set in places like Netherfield Park. Whenere uses Google's Gemini-powered Dreamlands to generate furniture and décor, and users can write dialogue themselves or with AI help. MacLeod doubts that Fortnite players want Austen or that Austen fanfic writers are a large share of the player base. She also expects the AI-generated assets to put off the fan-fiction authors Whenere is courting, since describing the dresses and rooms is part of the craft. She reads the project as a test balloon for UGC and AI that fits Epic's crossover strategy.

CounterpointStephenson told Google the technology is "augmenting and enhancing creativity, not replacing it," and co-founder Karen Laur said AI saved work on repetitive details like matching chair wood. Whenere and Google would also point out that Austen is public domain, which makes it a low-risk place to test the platform.

Previously: Unity launched Unity Spark and a Google Playground tie-in, drawing Aftermath's scorn, while Wizards of the Coast's union demanded a halt to generative AI. — Thursday October 8 edition.

Rock Paper Shotgun's Mark Warren covers Xbox's new licensing division, which he sets against the 3,200 layoffs the company plans in total. Headed by former Mojang president Kayleen Walters, it has four areas: Xbox Pictures for film and TV, Xbox Products for merchandise, Xbox Places for live events and attractions, and Xbox Partnerships for sponsorships. Chief strategy officer Matthew Ball said it consolidates capabilities that have existed across Xbox teams for years.

Mojang gets a new CEO, Maria Angelidou-Smith, who spent nearly a decade at Meta on Facebook products and later led product at Personio and Reddit. Warren notes that, like Xbox boss Asha Sharma, she has no games-industry background. He suggests that studios Xbox has cut, such as Double Fine or Compulsion, might have fared better had licensing been pushed earlier.

CounterpointXbox's position, as stated by Ball, is that "great games remain at the center" of its franchises, and Sharma says Mojang already has a strong development team. Supporters would argue that licensing diversifies revenue and can fund game development, not replace it.

Previously: Undead Labs' Holt named Splash Damage as the failed buyer and described cautious investors, while Xbox's CEO claimed a return to growth. — Thursday October 8 edition.

GamesIndustry.biz interviews Glen Schofield, who announced his retirement from the games industry this summer, about his career, the development of The Callisto Protocol and the state of AAA. The headline carries his view that a creative idea can currently save more money than AI can. Only the interview's summary was available for this edition, so the detail of his argument is not covered here.

CounterpointPublishers and tool vendors investing heavily in generative AI argue that it already cuts production costs in areas like asset creation and testing, which would put them at odds with Schofield's framing.

Tom Orry at Respec objects that Minecraft's free upgrade from Switch to Switch 2 is open only to owners of the digital edition, who have until the end of January 2027 to claim it. The Switch 2 edition adds Vibrant Visuals lighting and shadows and lets players carry over their saves. Orry argues physical copies are popular on Switch, especially with children, and notes that other games, including The Witcher 3's upgrade for cartridge owners at the end of September, have been more generous. Neither Nintendo nor Microsoft has announced a path for cartridge owners, and he thinks one is unlikely.

CounterpointPublishers commonly charge for upgrades, and Orry himself says he is not against paying when the improvement is big. Nintendo and Microsoft could argue that a free upgrade for cartridge owners is harder to verify and administer than one tied to a digital account.