Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Hideaki Nishino used Sony’s latest quarterly financial report to share some thoughts on the role that AI will play in the future of game development, and if you’re thinking that he might temper his enthusiasm in the face of consumer discontent, all I can say is—guess again.
Nishino is an unabashed booster of AI, calling it a “powerful tool” during Sony’s corporate strategy presentation that will enable “gaming experiences like never before—more immersion, more adventures, and fresh ways to enjoy [your] favorite characters.”
I feel obligated to state that I’m not reflexively against new technologies, nor am I naive about the nature of human progress, which is always at least a little destructive. At the same time, if a labor-intensive process has been replaced by a much faster automated process, the people involved in that labor will naturally find themselves without much to do—and as much as corporations like to talk about freeing developers from scut work so they can focus on artistry and magic, the reality is that the artists and animators responsible for expressive faces and flowing hair are not suddenly going to find themselves holding creative director roles on a multitude of new, AI-powered games.
Some of the controversy surrounding the use of AI in game development arises from a lack of precision in language and definitions, and the tendency to lump generative AI, LLMs, machine learning algorithms, and any other “it’s thinking” technology that float to the surface into a great pile called AI. But there’s a great gulf between, say, Elon Musk’s promise to “release a great AI-generated game” before the end of 2026—clock’s ticking, bud—and recognizing that these technologies can be very powerful and useful in a real-world sense.
And despite Nishino’s belief that “AI models can outperform manual curation,” the fact is that I don’t want recommendations based on my purchase history and hours spent on this or that: I want people who know me to say, “Hey man, you’re a weirdo—check this shit out.”
Watch On
No machine will tell you to play this. But we will.
I think the truth is that AI, in whatever guise, is and will continue to be useful to game developers, in some cases invaluably so, and will also continue to cause upheaval: Fewer people employed in the game industry, more sloppy shovelware, and—until the bubble pops, at least—higher costs for consumers. And we will continue to see effusive enthusiasm for it from game industry executives, not necessarily because they have a firm grasp on what it really offers (I suspect nobody can honestly make that claim), but simply because they’re all afraid of missing the boat and getting fired.
“We believe AI will unleash the creativity of our studios, power a more curated platform, and enhance the PlayStation experience for both players and creators,” Nishino concluded. “With our global player base, deep library of IP, and integrated ecosystem, AI is a powerful tool for us to deliver a truly cutting-edge entertainment experience.”
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