Elon Musk, never one to shy away from bold declarations, has now set his sights on AI game studio. In a surprise announcement on X, Musk revealed plans to create an AI game developer under the banner of his AI division, xAI. Musk’s sudden pivot into game development seems to be triggered by a grievance of a fellow techbro on the platform. They claimed that certain ideologies have made too much negative effect to the industry.
X user @BillyM2k, owned by Billy Markus the creator of DogeCoin cryptocurrency, shared his annoyance with the ‘manipulative’ gaming industry. “i don’t understand how game developers and game journalism got so ideologically captured,” wrote the Shibetoshi Nakamoto handle. “gamers have always rejected dumb manipulative bs, and can tell when someone is an outsider poser. why lean into the bs?”
Not long after, quoting said tweet, Elon Musk suddenly announced that he’s planning to ‘start‘ an AI game studio to ‘make games great again.’
“Too many game studios that are owned by massive corporations,” X’d the owner of @elonmusk account. “@xAI is going to start an AI game studio to make games great again!”
Elon Musk’s plan to use X’s AI division as a game studio might’ve been spurred by his rambles back in October 2024. At that time, a fan asked him if he was interested in making his own game company. The question was prompted by Dustborn and Concord‘s flops because they were ‘prioritizing pronouns’ instead of gameplay.
Later, Musk admitted he was interested in the idea and that applying AI to game development would let developers ‘make incredible video games.’ He then added that in terms of content, ‘diversity-equity-inclusion and the woke mind virus’ kills the art.
“When you see something that’s forcibly imposed on a game, it destroys the art. […] It kicks you out of the story because you feel you’re being lectured,” Musk explained.
Several well-known industry profiles quickly shown interest and support for his idea.
Marty O’Donnell, ex-Halo composer and sound director replied with, “Need music?”
“Excellent,” wrote Ian Miles Chong. “Please buy the Dungeons & Dragons license.”
“It’s time,” said Grummz or Mark Kern, a former Blizzard employee and developer of the Firefall MMO. “AA games are outperforming AAA bloat this year by an order of magnitude.”
This isn’t Musk’s first foray into the gaming industry, however. While he has made some musings about video games, recently Musk is also known as the best Diablo 4 speedrunner. The Tesla CEO showcased a video of him beating Tier 150 The Pit of Artificers in one minute and 50 seconds using the Spiritborn class.
Musk has commissioned a couple of games themed around his SpaceX company as well. One is a competently-made ISS Docking Simulator, where you must steer a Dragon 2 capsule to dock with the International Space Station. The other is literally a pointless vertical-scrolling score-attack game where your rocket will eventually hit the game’s edge with no finish line. It was called SpaceX: Starship The Game and has been made inaccessible since some time ago.
In the 90’s, Musk coded several obscure games, such as Cadillacs and Dinosaurs: The Second Cataclysm and Rocket Jockey.
Of course, Elon Musk diving headfirst into AI game studio is bound to raise eyebrows — and probably a few pitchforks. The gaming industry is already wrestling with AI-related controversies, such as SAG-AFTRA’s ongoing concerns about AI voiceovers. His impulsive moves are likely to stir the pot even more.
