Veteran game developer Masahiro Sakurai is the latest to speak out against generative AI.
Sakurai’s criticisms are pointed and very specific. In an interview with Denfaminico gamer, he stated that developers need to come up with new game ideas that gamers don’t even know that they want. He used Super Smash Bros. as an example, because it’s so different to what gamers expect from a fighting game.
Sakurai then got real. He pointed out that from the 275 games that released on Steam in 2010, over 19,000 games now come to the platform annually.
To quote Sakurai (paraphrased):
AI will increase that number, but I think most of them will become unprofitable titles. When it comes to things created with AI… or things mass-produced with poor quality, I think most of them will simply be reproductions of systems seen in various other games.
Some gamers may think Sakurai is speaking purely idealistically, but there’s precedent for the video game industry being flooded by poor quality games. It’s certainly a negative mirror image to how fellow veteran Tim Sweeney has embraced AI.
