The development of AI in the gaming industry has placed AAA studios and major companies like Sony and Nintendo at the forefront of the AI revolution. Yet unlike Nintendo,which has been vehementlyagainst implementing AIin itstechnology, Sony sits on the other side of the fence, even using AI in the latestPlayStation 5 Proconsole.
In a recentinterview with BBC, PlayStation’s two co-CEOs, Hermen Hulst and Hideaki Nishino, discussed the future of AI as part of the console’s30th-year celebration, alongside other insight into the game juggernauts' recent successes like the critically acclaimedAstro Bot.
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With Sony always at the forefront of new console technology, it’s no wonder they have taken a strong stance on maintaining a balance between new AI features and human ingenuity.To keep up with the console and video game race,AI has provedto be a valuable yet understandably controversial tool.
While the big bosses of PlayStation maintain that AI will never fully take over all the jobs done by humans for game development, this latest interview is still a sign that the future of AI may utterly transform the industry a lot sooner than you’d think.
As mentioned previously, PlayStation is already shipping AI as a notable feature of its games and systems. The PlayStation Pro, for instance, allows for anAI upscaling feature, which attempts to upgrade games' graphical quality while keeping a steady next-gen framerate.
However, AI implementation is entirely different when considering its placewithin game developmentitself. AI tools are being used to help develop large portions of games, such as design and programming, to enable developers to produce massive-scale games at a record pace.
Regarding the state of AI directly in games,co-CEO Herman Hulst said he suspects “there will be a dual demand in gaming: one for AI-driven innovative experiences and another for handcrafted, thoughtful content."
Striking the right balance between leveraging AI and preserving the human touch will be crucial.
This statement still stands shaky when considering themassive layoffscompanies like Microsoft and PlayStation have already undergone during this time of proposed AI implementation. Job security in the industry is frightening for big and small developers alike, andlosses like Concordshow that even PlayStation isn’t safe from massive failures.
Regarding Concord, Hulst examined that some aspects of the title “were exceptional, but others did not land with enough players.”Although PlayStation aims to bounce away from that debacle, it’s hard not to find the irony in them defending human ingenuity in AI yet inadvertently leading to a failure that shut down an entire studio.
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Despite Concord and the growing debate behind AI, the CEOs still had a lot of good to share from this last year. With the PlayStation Portal and a few gems such as Astro Bot, Sony still has many positive things to celebrate for PlayStation’s 30th anniversary.
With Hulst expressing he “cannot express how happy we are with the reception of Astro Bot,” it’s clear the little robot has been a big point of interest for the company, especially with it beingnominated for Game Of The Yearat this year’s Game Awards.
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The PlayStation Portal had also recently begun its cloud streaming service, to which Nishino stated they are “always exploring various options for how players can play games.”
Although they refused to comment on future PlayStation handhelds, which have been thesubject of many rumorsin recent weeks, it’s a good sign that the company may be exploring new avenues, such as a more fully complete handheld that can natively run games on the system.
With this being PlayStation’s big 30th anniversary, massive successes like Astro Bot and the decent reception of their new handheld show that PlayStation isn’t slowing down anytime soon. But poetically,the debate of AI and failures of live services like Concord show that even the big developers can’t escape the tides of a churning industry.
Although it’s entirely up for grabs, PlayStation is definitely the company to turn to when thinking about the future of AI and new technology as we enter the second half of this console generation.
