A new report from Unity, the developer behind the popular game engine, reveals a shocking number of game development studios are already using AI in many areas when creating video games. Many companies have been talking about the increasing integration of AI to simplify certain tasks in the game development cycle, which could significantly reduce the ever-increasing turnover rate for new AAA titles. Many AI critics continue to assert that the use of artificial intelligence in any kind of artistic medium is legally dubious since the programs are ultimately scraping content from oftentimes copyrighted materials, and not always with express permission.
Number of Game Devs Using AI
The recent Unity 2024 games report contains survey data relevant to a number of different trends in the gaming industry, including which types of games developers are currently focusing on creating and which platforms they prefer to ship them to. Its section on AI may be the most interesting amidst a perplexed public sphere that has yet to make its mind up as to how it feels about the encroachment of programs like Dall-E and ChatGPT. The survey shows nearly half of all game developers responding using AI in one form or another during the video game development process.
The source states there were 300 respondents to the presented survey. Of those respondents, 46% had utilized AI to improve character animations. 37% had utilized AI for writing code and much smaller percentages have used it for things like playtesting and asset creation.
Game development cycles have been getting longer and longer for most high-budget titles, a fact that has resulted in a wave of lackluster launches and reports of severe employee crunch time. In the wake of that, many are embracing AI as the technology that could potentially be the band-aid, if not the solution, for this issue. Still, others question if it isn’t merely reducing the work, but simultaneously taking it away as the video game industry faces mass layoffs throughout virtually every major American developer.
