Of the many, MANY controversies that are going on in the gaming space, not to mention the rest of the world, right now, it can sometimes be hard to focus on just one and think about all the ways that it’s bad or could be even worse. For example, with Nintendo, many people are focusing on the fallout still from the Switch 2 Direct, which includes the software prices, the questions about 1st party and 3rd party exclusives, the pivot away from US pre-orders for the console due to the tariffs, and so on. However, a smaller issue has popped up once again, and The Big N has appeared to have swatted it down.
That issue is the one of using things like generative AI to try and make video games. This issue has been coming up quite a bit recently, especially as certain AAA developers have noted they either are up for using or have already been using it in certain ways to make game ideas for them. You might also have seen the backlash online via social media when a “Studio Ghibli AI” started floating around, allowing people to make art in the beloved studio’s style. It was insulting to many fans, and that feeling carried over to the gaming space.
Thankfully, according to Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser during a chat with CNBC, The Big N will always value the “human touch” over anything a computer can attempt to generate:
“If developers choose to use AI, and it is a discussion right now at Nintendo, it’s not the only method of developing games. We still believe that what makes our games special is our developers, their artistic capabilities, their insight into how people play. There’s always, always going to be a human touch, and a human engagement in how we develop and build our games.”
This should be a welcome relief to many, as the company has been known to “scare fans” every once in a while, with last week’s Switch 2 Direct being proof of that. The fact of the matter is that the OG Switch was one of the best consoles of all time due to the incredible software lineup that was put on it. That lineup was made by incredible teams who knew what they were doing and gave their all to make incredible games. AI can’t do that, so it should always be human developers who make video games.
