„I think that's a good thing.” Tim Sweeney believes that with AI, 10 people are enough to make great games
The head of Epic Games remains optimistic about AI's impact on the game industry, although he doesn't deny that some companies have „tainted” the use of generative artificial intelligence.
1
AI is to help small devs make big games on the scale of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. At least that's the vision of the gaming industry presented by the head of Epic Games, Tim Sweeney.
The issue of using "creative" artificial intelligence raises the voices of those who see AI as another tool for game developers.
Tim Sweeney is clearly among the optimists, and extreme ones at that. During the State of Unreal event (the same one where the Witcher 4 technology was showcased), the CEO of Epic Games stated that AI prompts are a "good thing" and will be a "fundamental part" of game engines, leading to the creation of "entirely new genres of games," which would be impossible to create without artificial intelligence.
Big worlds of small developers
In an interview with IGN, Sweeney explained that every big advancement in technology used by game developers must lead to the creation of new genres. As an example, he mentioned 3D graphics, which gave us 3D shooters, and more powerful components that allowed for fun with hundreds of players in battle royale titles.
In the case of generative artificial intelligence, the head of EG highlighted an example of its application that was frequently discussed during the early stages of the "creative" AI boom: infinite NPC dialogues. These can be implemented so easily that even small teams will have no problem creating rich, interactive worlds.
AI characters giving you the possibility of infinite dialogue with a really simple setup for creators means small teams will be able to create games with immense amounts of characters and immense and interactive worlds. What would it take for a 10-person team to build a game like Zelda Breath of the Wild in which the AI is just doing all the dialogue and you're just writing some character synopsis? That's totally going to be within reach over the next few years.
The tainted idea of AI
The head of Epic Games shows enthusiasm for the use of AI in video game development, not for the first time. Nonetheless, he is not blind to the current problems of this technology. Sweeney criticized companies that "tainted" modern artificial intelligence by "mass extraction of content from other companies and individuals." Not to mention that artificial intelligence has started to rely on its own creations, which is not good for it.
Despite this, the American remains optimistic. In his opinion, this will allow small, independent teams to create big games, while also enabling large AAA studios to not only scale up but also improve game quality. This last issue is really catching the attention of other creators, who, given the current expansion of games (even those seemingly less complicated), have a problem with catching all the bugs (as players have often found out in the last decade).
- Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on AI - It doesn’t matter what you do, here’s how I’d use it to get ahead
- Elton John slams plan to let AI use artists’ work without paying. The UK’s new bill comes under fire
- Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, thinks its „cool” young people use ChatGPT for life advice
- AI-generated videos are becoming more difficult to distinguish from reality. We already have fake YouTubers playing Fortnite and Minecraft
- Big publishers worry generative AI might damage their reputations. Players aren't fond of it