Currently, much of the video game industry is going through struggles. Primarily, there are issues regarding the cost of gaming, having “realistic expectations” for game sales, the battle of exclusives vs. multiplatform content, and “what matters the most” when it comes to developing video games as a whole. That doesn’t touch upon issues like generative AI, which some companies want to embrace, while others feel it’s a true “slippery slope” for multiple reasons. Enter Masahiro Sakurai, a man who believes in having the best kind of game development possible, but does generative AI fit into that?
In an interview with Yahoo Japan, he gave a rather surprising answer:
“To be honest, it’s dark to see what’s coming. I think that if you try to make a large-scale game like the ones we have now, it’s too time-consuming and unsustainable. I feel that we can’t continue like this, but at the moment, the only effective solution I can think of is generative AI. I feel that we have reached a stage where we must change our schemes, such as by using generative AI to improve work efficiency. “
To be fair, he’s NOT saying that generative AI should be used to make games on their own. Masahiro Sakurai is too much of a creative and passionate man to say such things. However, he is open to AI if it helps with “efficiency,” which is something he himself admitted to having struggled with in the past.
What he’s likely saying is that if tools can be made to help developers fix or develop things that are often “minor annoyances” or take too much time on their own to fix, that could help speed up game development tremendously. Right now, he’s working on Kirby Air Riders for the Nintendo Switch 2, so it’ll be interesting to see how that all plays out.
