Former Assassin's Creed Producer Believes AI is to Stay in Gamdev Whether we Like It or Not

Source: Sony. Screen z Fairgame$

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The new issue of EDGE published an interesting conversation between Jade Raymond (producer of the early installments of, among others Assassins's Creed, and currently head of Haven Studios, where she is working on Fairgame$) and Raph Koster (one of the directors of EverQuest 2). It was devoted to the issue of using AI-generated content in AAA games.

Both Raymond and Koster are convinced that the use of AI to create AAA game elements is inevitable, and no dissenting voices will stop it.

1. Jade Raymond believes that AI can reduce the cost and time needed to develop AAA games. As she explains, it used to take a team of 50 people about two years to create this type of production. Today, such teams number in the hundreds, and development can take up to a decade.
2. The current pace of development is simply unsustainable without AI. Koster admits that artists, gamers and even developers themselves often resent AI-created content, but the cost reductions that follow the use of such technology are simply too important for major companies to afford to ignore.
3. Koster, however, doesn't think AI will completely replace developers, as humans are simply better in many aspects (e.g., when creating storylines). Rather, AI will only be an aid to developers.
4. According to Jade Raymond, the advantages of AI will not be limited to reducing costs. The producer believes that in the distant future, such technologies will allow for games to be dynamically tailored to the needs of individual players, as well as to create high-quality games for niche audiences. Currently, there is no way that someone will make a AAA game revolving around, for example, growing a garden or helping to develop a hobby. AI could change that. The producer also sees great potential for creating games for retirees, and here, too, artificial intelligence should prove very helpful.

It's hard not to agree with the thoughts of these veterans. Rising costs are keeping many AAA game developers up at night.. In April, Pawel Sasko of CD Projekt RED stated that ever-increasing budgets and the increasing complexity of such titles mean that developers will soon reach the limit of their capabilities. He compared it to a wall that everyone will soon crash against.

Completely handmade games will not disappear, but they will probably become the domain of smaller indie teams, whose members will not try to match the most expensive superproductions on the market.