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GTA 6 publisher CEO doubts AI generation tools will make games more profitable or cheaperBut they will make competition “more intense” for developers who don’t have them
But they will make competition “more intense” for developers who don’t have them
Image credit:Rockstar Games
Image credit:Rockstar Games
GTA 6publisher Take-Two Interactive’s CEO Strauss Zelnick has been on the blower to the company’s investors about the idea of making games using the latest artificial intelligence content generation tools. Echoing hisrelatively guarded enthusiasm for NFTsa couple of years ago, he’s sort of mixed on them, regarding AI tools less as transformative technologies than simply the latest step towards the eternal industry objective of More, Faster And Better For Less.
“In certain instances, they’ll help us do things we haven’t been able to do before,” he went on. “But it’s going to allow that for our competitors as well. So I think the toolsets that come out of these recent developments will be commoditized quickly, and the efficiency that we see, others will see.”
Major videogame publishers and industry luminaries continue to bet big on artificial intelligence tools such as Inworld AI, whichrecently announced a collaboration with Microsoftto create an “AI copilot” for Xbox Game Studios developers. Ubisoft are working onan AI dialogue writing toolcalled Ghostwriter. Valve, however, areworried about the legalities of AI tools that make use of already-existing images or other data, while DOOM’s co-creator Tom Hallis concerned that adopting generative tools wholesale might lead to homogenisation.
As for the often-broached, seldom encouragingly-answered question of whether automating aspects of game development might translate to fewer jobs for actual human beings, Zelnick reckons that it will lead to less “menial work” and more “high-level” work, leaving it to listeners to decide which tasks fit into which category.
“Do I think that generative AI is going to make hit games? No,” he said. “Do I think that the need for creative people will go away? Absolutely not. I think if anything, better toolsets just raise the bar. They give us the opportunity to do more and do better. The changes will be - menial work probably is reduced or eliminated, high-level work is enhanced in importance.” Zelnick added that AI tools will bring about “some shifts in productivity, but I’m not sure they’ll drop to the bottom line, because typically when we’ve generated productivity with toolsets we’ve just set our sights higher.”
