Nintendo Refuses to Use Generative AI in Game Development. Why?
Japanese company Nintendo will no longer use generative AI in its new games. And this is despite the fact that Steam already has more than 1,000 games developed using AI technologies. The reasons for this decision and what other representatives of the gaming industry think are explained below.
Generative AI creates complexity
Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa says the technology itself is not bad. But developing games with AI raises legal issues. For example, generative models are trained on a large amount of content, which may be subject to copyright. If an author sees their content in a new game, developers could have serious problems.
“In the gaming industry, artificial intelligence technologies have long been deployed – even as an example of AI that determines the behavior model of characters in games. In turn, generative AI has recently become a topic of heated discussions – these are technologies that can be used in a creative way, but create certain difficulties in relation to intellectual property rights. Within the company, there is experience accumulated over the years in producing the most optimal game projects for our audience. We remain flexible in the matter of mastering new technical solutions. However, it is also important for us to be those who can offer the audience unique experiences realized without direct dependence on the technological base”— commented President of Nintendo.
Shuntaro Furukawa added that the company continues to monitor new products, but adheres to traditional values that are unachievable through technology alone. A similar opinion is shared by the Nintendo boss's colleague, Sony Group CEO Kenichiro Yoshida. He said that artificial intelligence should be used to support human creativity, not replace it.
“AI, which has recently evolved significantly, is used in game development. AI can also be considered a computing technology. However, AI is not a replacement for human creativity. We position it as a tool that supports creativity. And creativity, in turn, belongs to people. We will continue to support it with AI.”— reported Kenichiro Yoshida.
This doesn’t mean that Sony is avoiding AI altogether. The company will continue to expand its capabilities using new technologies. For example, Gran Turismo 7 (PS5 version) added a next-generation AI agent, Gran Turismo Sophy (GT Sophy), developed by Sony AI and PDI, in late 2023. It can drive 340 cars on nine different tracks. That’s 95% of the game’s car fleet, which is much more than the four cars and tracks that the previous version of GT Sophy supported.
How AI is used in gaming
Let's remember how AI is useful for the gaming industry:
Creation of game worlds and plots. Generative AI helps create game worlds (like RimWorld) and individual storylines in different universes, including open-world games. Specialists use generative AI to procedurally generate content and speech animations to adapt a character’s gestures and tone to the words they speak. Previously, models had to be created manually, which took a lot of time. New technologies optimize the work.
Working out the opponents. AI can adjust the behavior of characters “from the other side”. It allows enemies to become smarter, and their actions are no longer scripted. In addition, AI characters can remember the player's past actions in order to creatively respond to them in new iterations. You won't get bored with such an opponent!
Adaptation for gamers. In many games (especially cloud games), items, quests, landscapes, companions, and other game elements are personalized — that is, tailored to a specific gamer. This makes the game more interesting. A good example is No Man's Sky. It has the ability to generate 18 quintillion open worlds that change based on the player's experience.
Difficulty adjustment. It's not just about difficulty levels – easy, medium, hard, but about adapting the gameplay to the gamer's skill levels. This is necessary to improve the user experience. A person enjoys playing not at the limit of his abilities, but also without passing “with one finger”. AI determines key indicators and monitors the gamer's actions in the game universe.
To sum it up: AI in gaming is no longer a whim, but a necessity. In general, artificial intelligence helps developers overcome the limitations of script bots and solve routine tasks, such as character movements, world generation, etc.
