Microsoft kills Gaming Copilot for Xbox consoles and mobile

[midian182]

What just happened? In news that will undoubtedly come as a devastating blow to anyone who owns an Xbox console, Microsoft has confirmed that it is no longer developing Copilot AI for the Series X and S machines. New CEO Asha Sharma said the move was because Copilot doesn't "align" with Xbox.

It was only two months ago at GDC 2026 when Sonali Yadav, Xbox's Gaming AI partner group product manager, said Gaming Copilot would be coming to current-gen Microsoft consoles, with the rollout expected to take place this year.

Microsoft first introduced Copilot for Gaming in March 2025. The AI tool was positioned as a "sidekick" that aids players by guiding them through certain aspects of gameplay. An example was in Overwatch 2, where Copilot analyzed gameplay mistakes and suggested optimal hero picks to complement team compositions, detailing the strengths and weaknesses of each character.

The Copilot for Gaming beta soon rolled out to Xbox Insiders on PC. It was set to expand to console and mobile, but not anymore.

In a post on X, Sharma wrote about Xbox moving faster, deepening community connections, and addressing friction for both players and developers.

"As part of this shift, you'll see us begin to retire features that don't align with where we're headed. We will begin winding down Copilot on mobile and will stop development of Copilot on console," the Xbox boss added.

– Nicolas (@Wander_Mindset) May 6, 2026

It was reported last month that Microsoft had at least 80 products carrying the Copilot name – a perfect illustration of a company ramming AI down people's throats even when opinion of the product ranges from indifference to outright dislike.

Unsurprisingly, the move has been praised by most of the 2,700 comments under the post. "This is 100% too good to be true. Where is the trade off?" wrote one user.

Copilot for Gaming on the Xbox mobile app is also being killed off.

This is another Sharma decision that has been welcomed. Replacing Phil Spencer in February and her background as an AI executive meant she had a lot of work to do to win over gamers, but the CEO got off to a good start by lowering the prices of Game Pass Ultimate and PC, both of which had increased in 2025.

Sharma still has to deal with Xbox's financial troubles. The division saw a 5% YoY decline in content and services revenue and a massive 33% fall in hardware revenue during the last quarter, continuing a long-running trend.

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Microsoft kills Gaming Copilot for Xbox consoles and mobile

 

[Rapob]

My guess is that they stopped developing on Xbox completely. Xbox stock literally vanished over the last 1-2 years. Not even on Microsofts own site you can buy them.

Xbox Series X/S = EOL. The S model was a big mistake too. Stupid name, stupid goal. Should have been called something more simple and MS should only have made one model on launch, like Sony with PS5. People knew what it was.

Next "Xbox" will probably be a PC hybrid I bet. Project Helix. Game Pass subs is what Microsoft cares about these days. And Windows marketshare, why don't combine them? They will and already did.

They will probably keep selling Xbox accessories. Easy money.
Xbox will live on, as an App on Windows.

 

[acrossthestars]

My guess is that they stopped developing on Xbox completely. Xbox stock literally vanished over the last 1-2 years. Not even on Microsofts own site you can buy them.

Xbox Series X/S = EOL. The S model was a big mistake too. Stupid name, stupid goal. Should have been called something more simple and MS should only have made one model on launch, like Sony with PS5. People knew what it was.

Next "Xbox" will probably be a PC hybrid I bet. Project Helix. Game Pass subs is what Microsoft cares about these days. And Windows marketshare, why don't combine them? They will and already did.

They will probably keep selling Xbox accessories. Easy money.
Xbox will live on, as an App on Windows.

This is probably correct, but it also means that Xbox as a separate division of Microsoft is going away. If Xbox no longer sells consoles (which, in my opinion it hasn't for a while), then it will be subsumed into the Windows ecosystem. The Series S/X consoles haven't been updated in 5 years. You can argue about the value proposition of releasing a "Pro" version of the PlayStation all you want, but the fact is, Sony was and is trying to keep their device competitive with the latest developments in computer architecture. At the very least, releasing a mid-console refresh meant Sony was keen to maintain the PlayStation console as "continually evolving".

Meanwhile, Xbox has all but given up. I think it was about that point in time, when Microsoft acquired Activision/Blizzard in 2023 for ~$75 billion, that the market released there was a seismic shift in prioritizes. They don't want to develop hardware anymore, they just want to be a publisher. But they can't just outright abandon hardware entirely, because Xbox is still a console brand, not just a software platform. Their $80 billion investment into OpenAl has not returned dividends to cover the massive expenditure and it's too big of a tax write off, so they have to release something. It has to be competitive with or exceed the performance of the PS6, because otherwise they'll signaling to the market that Xbox as a product doesn't exist anymore. That absence has downstream effects, such as "well, if Xbox doesn't sell consoles anymore, why would I buy a Game Pass subscription?" In theory, the two are separate and one should not affect the other. But, again, Xbox is still a console brand before it's a games publisher, so if there is no Xbox console, then there is no Xbox.

I seriously doubt their balance sheet can absorb much more bad PR.

 

[OortCloud]

Well so far she is actually listening and making some surprisingly (for MS) sensible decisions. It's still a very rocky road though because the Xbox brand has become so tarnished over the last couple of years, winning the next console generation against the PS6 will be tough and Game Pass is still much more expensive than it was prior to the Activision madness.

 

[scoffer]

Microsoft kills Copilot...............there - fixed it for you!