The approximately 28 trillion yen game industry is about to undergo a major transformation with the advent of AI

It is certain that there are people who have lost their labor due to the automation of work by introducing AI, and there are many voices who object to the easy introduction of AI. However, companies around the world are considering the introduction of AI tools as a countermeasure against soaring development costs, and it is reported that game development companies in particular are actively trying to introduce AI.

How AI Is Changing $200 Billion Video Games Industry, Speeding Up New Titles - Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-07-25/ai-is-rewriting-the-rules-of-200-billion-games-industry

How AI Impact is Revolutionizing the Video Gaming Industry – Cryptopolitan
https://www.cryptopolitan.com/how-ai-impact-game-industry/

According to Bloomberg, an American economic newspaper, the head of a major Japanese game development studio is looking ahead to the future where half of the programmers and designers will become unnecessary within five years due to the advent of AI. In addition, Gala Sports , a game development studio in Hong Kong, has suspended research projects other than AI and is offering a reward of up to $ 7,000 (about 880,000 yen) for innovative ideas using AI.

Gala Sports built a tool to render a realistic 3D model of the head using image generation AIs Stable Diffusion and Midjourney. It is said that the work that took two weeks and $ 28,000 (about 4 million yen) outsourced so far can be done with only half a day and less cost. Jia Xiaodong, CEO of Gala Technology Holdings, the parent company of Gala Sports, told Bloomberg, ``Basically, every week we feel like we're being excluded. The impact that has had on the gaming industry could be as dramatic as the changes over the past 30 to 40 years.'

For example, AI can be expected to play an active role in game development in the creation of graphics required for games. ' Crypko ' provided by Preferred Networks, a Japanese AI startup, is a service that generates anime-style characters with AI. , By using AI, it is now possible to create with a license of 4980 yen per month + 980 yen per sheet.

Generating sentences is another area where recent generative AI excels. Morikatron , who claims to be `` Japan's first game AI company '', has announced a murder mystery `` Red Rum '' in which AI generates all content.

This Redrum uses Stable Diffusion and ChatGPT to automatically generate a story by AI according to the player's settings, and the content such as the world view, evidence, and character image changes every time according to the content of the incident. ``Redrum is a game that cannot be developed without the power of AI, because Redrum requires countless image and text assets,'' said Yukihito Morikawa, founder and CEO of Morikatron.

Yosuke Shiokawa, former producer of the smartphone game ' Fate/Grand Order ' and founder of the game development company Fahrenheit 213, is considering introducing AI to create game objects and backgrounds. It seems that the generation AI was used in the teaser trailer. Mr. Shiokawa commented, ``It will soon be a matter of creativity, not budget, that determines the value of a game.''

[Official] ``Tsurugi Hime'' Teaser Trailer-YouTube


On the other hand, the downside of such AI automation is the loss of employment opportunities. Regarding the rapid introduction of AI in the world of game development, voice actor Tsubasa Himeno said, ``New technology will make it more difficult for young people to start businesses.AI is a pure threat.'' I'm here. AI technology that reproduces not only pictures and sentences but also voices and figures has already appeared, and AI is making inroads into 'acting', which was thought to be possible only for humans. In Hollywood, the union of actors and screenwriters went on strike over AI regulation, and it became a hot topic.

Hollywood actors and screenwriters strike for ``AI regulations that take away jobs''-GIGAZINE

IT news site Cryptopolitan said, ``Rapid advances in AI are a double-edged sword, promising to revolutionize the gaming industry, but also threaten to disrupt the current employment scenario. I'm watching how well I can balance in this tightrope walk.'