GTA 6 studio boss doubts AI generation tools will make games more profitable or cheaper

GTA 6 publisher Take-Two Interactive’s CEO Strauss Zelnick has been on the blower to the company’s investors about the idea of making games using the latest artificial intelligence content generation tools. Echoing his relatively guarded enthusiasm for NFTs a couple of years ago, he’s sort of mixed on them, regarding AI tools less as transformative technologies than simply the latest step towards the eternal industry objective of More, Faster And Better For Less.

Zelnick thinks automated learning and generation tools will make development more “efficient” and games, overall “better”, but in terms of Take-Two’s own bottom line, any gains will likely be offset by the fact that other big companies have access to the same tools, and by the fact that Take-Two will take advantage of said efficiencies by setting more ambitious goals. As such, he doesn’t think using generative AI will lead to lower prices for big commercial games. If you’re a developer that can’t afford to buy or license generative “AI” tools, Zelnick added, you can expect competition to become “more intense” in the coming years. Good stuff.

“We’ve been in the AI business since the dawn of this industry,” Zelnick observed in an earnings call last night, when asked about how the new generation tools might affect Take-Two’s business, as highlighted by the galloping desperadoes of Gamesradar. “Our entertainment properties are created largely in and by computers. We value tools. We create those tools internally, and we license tools as well. The new developments in AI are really exciting, and I’ve said publicly and repeatedly that I believe that they’ll help create efficiency.

“In certain instances, they’ll help us do things we haven’t been able to do before,” he went on. “But it’s going to allow that for our competitors as well. So I think the toolsets that come out of these recent developments will be commoditized quickly, and the efficiency that we see, others will see.”

Major videogame publishers and industry luminaries continue to bet big on artificial intelligence tools such as Inworld AI, which recently announced a collaboration with Microsoft to create an “AI copilot” for Xbox Game Studios developers. Ubisoft are working on an AI dialogue writing tool called Ghostwriter. Valve, however, are worried about the legalities of AI tools that make use of already-existing images or other data, while DOOM’s co-creator Tom Hall is concerned that adopting generative tools wholesale might lead to homogenisation.

As for the often-broached, seldom encouragingly-answered question of whether automating aspects of game generation might translate to fewer jobs for actual human beings, Zelnick reckons that it will lead to less “menial work” and more “high-level” work, leaving it to listeners to decide which tasks fit into which category.

“Do I think that generative AI is going to make hit games? No,” he said. “Do I think that the need for creative people will go away? Absolutely not. I think if anything, better toolsets just raise the bar. They give us the opportunity to do more and do better. The changes will be – menial work probably is reduced or eliminated, high-level work is enhanced in importance.” Zelnick added that AI tools will bring about “some shifts in productivity, but I’m not sure they’ll drop to the bottom line, because typically when we’ve generated productivity with toolsets we’ve just set our sights higher.”

As such, you shouldn’t expect any savings eked out by eradicating “menial work” from gamedev to be passed onto the consumer. “Our strategy is to be the most creative, the most innovative, and the most efficient company in the business, and I think AI probably ticks all three boxes,” Zelnick added. “But don’t expect the price tags to go down. Just expect everything to get better, and competition probably to become more intense for people who are not able to avail themselves of the resources that we can afford.”