Ever since Larian Studios' chief executive officer, Swen Vincke, admitted that the studio is using GenAI technology in its development pipeline for Divinity, the use of GenAI tech in video game development has roared back to the front of the line in the industry's discourse rolodex. Amidst the GenAI conversation Larian started, it appears that renowned creator Hideo Kojima also offered his perspective on GenAI in a recent interview.
In an interview with CNN spotted by TweakTown (that actually went live a few days before Bloomberg's interview with Vincke), Kojima, perhaps unsurprisingly, said that he's not exactly interested in using GenAI technology to create anything visual. He doesn't dismiss it entirely, though, as he says he's more interested in how it could be used within the "control systems" of a game than anything else.
"Rather than having AI create visuals or anything like that, I'm more interested in using AI in the control systems," Kojima began. "For example, if you have 100 players, each of them will have their own habits and tendencies, their sense of control, how they move - all of that differs from person to person."
"By having AI compensate for those differences, the gameplay can gain more depth. And in most games, the enemies don't behave very much like real humans. But by using AI, enemy behavior could change based on the player's experience, actions, and patterns. That kind of dynamic response would make much deeper gameplay possible."
The kind of AI Hideo Kojima is discussing here, particularly with enemy behaviors, is the kind that we are more than used to seeing in video games. Alien: Isolation famously has an incredibly sophisticated enemy AI system built for the Xenomorph, which was a key element of its gameplay that elevates it to being a truly terrifying horror game.
His statement to CNN is also in line with the last time he was asked about GenAI, where he said he'd use it for "the tedious tasks" while he handled all the actual art.
While some studios, Larian included, are comfortable using GenAI for art and visuals as part of the process, it seems clear that Kojima would much rather have it make the systems and the nitty-gritty elements of development run smoother, so he could focus on what he loves to do, and the thing that actually makes his games iconic.
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