In the past few months, video game publishers and developers have been going all in on generative AI with the justification that it speeds up and improves development. In the attempt to help gamers make informed choices about their purchases, Valve has started enforcing AI disclosures on Steam, which Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney believes is irresponsible of the company, as it has a negative impact.
"It's unfortunate that so many developers now are put into this position. If you want to launch a game, and get it as widely publicized as possible, you've got to put it on Steam so people can wish list it, and if you want to play it on Steam, then you have to get this Scarlet Letter of AI attached to your product, and now there is a hater community trying to kill the game," Sweeney said to PC Gamer in a new interview. "I think it's really irresponsible of Valve. They shouldn't do it, because it makes it much, much, much harder for a game developer to have a chance of success. You have to choose from either not using tools that can make you way more productive, and probably failing due to competition that does."
While the Epic Games CEO isn't entirely wrong on the matter, as we have already seen backlash for games whose Steam store page features an AI disclosure even before their launch, Valve is definitely not irresponsible in doing so. Customers have the right to know how the product they may purchase is made and should have all the information needed to make a choice that aligns with their beliefs and their demand for consumer transparency.
To be fair, it's not surprising to see Tim Sweeney staunchly defending the use of AI in game development, as Epic Games' upcoming Unreal Engine 6 is going all-in with AI integration. The CEO doubled down on his stance in the interview with PC Gamer, saying that AI use in general helps developers spend more time on what matters: narrative and gameplay.
"You go to a library, like the Fab Content site or the Unity Asset Store, and buy a flower pot there. And then there's a whole economy around creating content. That's nice, but it gives you a fixed set of objects, and scanning only works for things that already exist in the world—you can't scan an alien. And the content libraries only work for things that have been created. If you have a game with a really unique look and feel, you need unique content, and AI is a path to getting that with a degree of economy that makes it competitive with Fab or scanning or other things, but works for a larger category of objects," Sweeney said. "The value is not in creating a perfect flower pot. It will be an absolute folly to spend a million dollars creating a flower pot, because the real value is in building the scene and building the game and building the narrative, and the gameplay, and making it awesome, and giving it a unique feel, and making something that appeals to gamers."
Unfortunately, it's clear how AI is being used by publishers as an excuse to lay-off actual developers, so it's difficult not to see the technology as a disruptive force in the gaming industry. As of now, automated models are definitely not capable of developing a video game by themselves, as seen in a recent GTA 6 -inspired project which started last week, but what will happen in the future when it will be able to? Only time will tell.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
Follow Wccftech on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds.
