Generative AI Won't Revolutionize Game Development Just Yet

Developers are in the business of building world, so it's easy to understand why the games industry would be excited about generative AI. With computers doing the boring stuff, a small team could whip up a map the size of San Andreas. Crunch becomes a thing of the past; games release in a finished state. There are, at the very least, two interrelated problems with this narrative. First, there's the logic of the hype itself--reminiscent of the frenzied gold rush over crypto/Web3/the metaverse--that, consciously or not, seems to consider automating artists' jobs a form of progress. Back in November, when DALL-E was seemingly everywhere, venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz posted a a long analysis on their website touting a "generative AI revolution in games" that would do everything from shorten development time to change the kinds of titles being made.