The year 2023 has been quite a year for the video game industry. We’ve seen some incredible games released, and we’ve also seen the bad, with several jobs being lost. However, as we move into 2024, we’re seeing some companies chime in about what the future may hold. For instance, one of the big names in the industry, Square Enix, spoke about the future of their development and publishing. Specifically, it looks like Square Enix is eager to dive further into embracing artificial intelligence. Just how that will come into play for the company remains to be seen.
AI has been a hot topic for a little while now. We’ve seen several big enhancements with AI that aid several industries. But there is also the fear of AI potentially taking away jobs. In the past, there’s been plenty of comments regarding AI being used in the game industry. More specifically, we’ve seen comments suggesting that AI is being used as a tool to further aid developers in creating content. That should hopefully translate to more impressive and immersive gameplay experiences. But thanks to PlayStation Lifestyle, we’re finding out that Square Enix is making a big move to embrace AI.
The comments come from Square Enix president Takashi Kiryu, who touched on AI during their New Year’s letter. Published online for fans to read, the president noted that they are making strides in 2024 to achieve further growth and initiatives. As they progress in 2024, Kiryu stated that they plan to apply AI and other cutting-edge technologies aggressively.
We also intend to be aggressive in applying AI and other cutting-edge technologies to both our content development and our publishing functions. In the short term, our goal will be to enhance our development productivity and achieve greater sophistication in our marketing efforts. In the longer term, we hope to leverage those technologies to create new forms of content for consumers, as we believe that technological innovation represents business opportunities.
Takashi Kiryu – Square Enix
Again, it looks like this is an effort to enhance their developer’s productivity further. It should be interesting to see just how well AI tools come into play with games hitting the development cycle this year. Of course, we’re always hopeful that these new technologies being implemented will never come as a means of ending actual jobs. Fortunately, again, it looks like these AI tools are just another means to give developers a bit more freedom to create their projects and potentially even cut back some of the time and hassle that could have previously slowed down their productions.
