Right now, it’s easy to look at the actions of certain companies and wonder what in the world they’re doing. Sadly, the answers aren’t easy to come by due to all the smoke and mirrors that they put up to try and block the truth so that they don’t come off looking a certain way. Not-so-ironically, it’s been Nintendo that has been the shining light in the industry when it comes to not only treating employees with respect but also attempting to do things in the “right way” without causing all sorts of controversy. If you felt that The Big N was going to buck that trend soon, a new tidbit of info should put your mind at ease.
You might recall that Nintendo had a Q&A with shareholders a little while back. Well, a new piece of info from that Q&A has come to light, and it involves the use of AI. Or, more specifically, the company’s desire NOT to use AI in its games.
When asked about this during the session, President Shuntaro Furukawa noted simply:
“We hope to continue to deliver value that is unique to us and cannot be achieved through technology alone.”
This will come as a relief to many people, as there have been companies who have already made statements about using AI “in small ways” to try and “boost production of titles.” Many gamers are wary of this because all it takes is for someone at the top to see that AI can “do the work of humans, but better,” and then more layoffs start happening, then the quality of video games goes down because they’re relying on a computer’s interpretation of everything versus a person putting in the effort to make something shine.
While Nintendo is hardly a perfect company and has made plenty of mistakes in the past, it’s good to see them take a stance with this and note that AI won’t be used to make content for its first-party titles. If you look at the history of The Big N, you’ll see why this honestly shouldn’t be a surprise. They’ve always been one, especially with first-party games, to try and go for the best quality version of things, even restarting whole development cycles because they didn’t like what they were seeing. Sure, it hasn’t always worked out, but those are the exceptions, not the rule.
Regardless, you don’t have to worry about an AI-driven game coming to the Switch or its successor anytime soon.
