I doubt any of Microsoft Game Studios seriously use Blender, although I'm sure some individuals might use it for specific workflows. AAA games almost universally use Maya (and ZBrush, Substance and Houdini), for example this presentation on Gears 5 workflow specifically mentions Maya and Houdini (https://cdn.gearsofwar.com/thecoalition/publications/The%20V...). This donation specifically mentions digital humans created for Microsoft Research, and MS Research as the user, not Microsoft Game Studios.

Blender skyrocketed in popularity in last 5 years. I just went through local gamedev job openings site (skillshot.pl) and over half of 3D Artist postings mention Blender.

I never said that Blender is not used in game development, I specifically said Blender is not widely used in AAA (Microsoft Game Studios) game productions, and that Microsoft Game Studios is not the driving force for this donation (which is stated in the origin post!). This should not be a controversial statement.

> I specifically said Blender is not widely used in AAA game productions

This tells me you may not have been keeping as close tabs on industry practices. I can tell you personally, this has been rapidly changing over the past few years, and it's taken a lot of people by surprise. I can't say it's supplanted Maya yet by any means, but that software's quickly being seen as old-hat by each new wave of gamedevs. It's fascinating to see.

If you have examples of AAA game developers that have moved their entire studio (not individuals using Blender, or outsourced contractors making one off assets) to Blender I'd like to hear it. I'm aware that indies, including many successful ones, and potentially some mid-tier or AA studios, widely use Blender. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about Naughty Dog, Blizzard, Treyarch, DICE, etc. I keep very close tabs on industry practices and work for a major game engine company. You yourself said "I can't say it's supplanted Maya yet by any means", I'm not talking about potential future growth, I'm talking about the current state of the industry in a very specific product category.

You are correct. Perhaps it is more widely used across their research and other divisions. They just went on a game dev studio buying spree though, and I thought there was a correlation.

It’s more than games. Hololens/mixed-reality has a boundless amount of modeling and more.

Yes, and the article states that. My response is specifically talking about games, because OP addressed Microsoft Game Studios. Microsoft Research and Microsoft Game Studios are different groups. Folks are acting like I said "Blender sux lol". Simply stating facts about usage.

> Finding negatives to this move is being too paranoid.

and I've been around long enough and been stung hard enough and enough times by MS[0] to say that not expecting negatives in this risks naivety.

[0] I've just wasted 12 hours trying to install visual studio and that's their own bloody product!

MS gaming division is also one of the most notorious for lock-in attitude and market manipulation (the whole DirectX push, refusal to support Vulkan and so on). So may be this move is neutral, but they surely don't deserve any trust by default.

Still waiting for those wonderful Khronos SDKs to come out.

Apparently LunarG SDK was the best they could make, which is quite telling.

Love how Vulkan extension count keeps rising every couple of weeks, not long to catch up with OpenGL 4.6 extension jungle.

This isn't a trolling platform for lock-in shill posts.