Is the future of artificial intelligence in video games playing out in a cyberpunk ramen bar? Tech companies would like you to think so, but game writers aren't so sure.
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Exclusivity is no longer the golden goose it used to be, making the multi-platform strategy way more appealing.
Yes, lets play Gran Turismo 7 on PC and Xbox... or Demons souls remake, or FF7 Rebirth, or FF16, or Spider man 2, or Rise of the ronin, or Stellar blade, or Astros playroom, or Bloodborne, or Horizon call of mountain, or Astro bot
Lets play Zelda TOTK on PC and Xbox... or Mario Kart, Mario party, Pokemon games, Donkey kong, Kirby, Super mario games...etc
Some journalists tend to defend Microsoft decisions with illogical arguments to show us the Xbox as a competitive platform on the demand of Mr. Spencer
Xbox - literally zero exclusives, all games on PC day one. Some of them later ported to PS, Switch
Playstation - some games ported later to PC
Switch - all first party games are exclusives
Do you see the difference?
Wow how surprising, no call for Nintendo to put it's games on xbox or PlayStation, or xbox to put any new games on PlayStation. And no, games from publishers they bought that were going to be on PlayStation anyway don't count.
And xbox putting games on PlayStation and Nintendo works because they have market share and their owners still buy games.
There is zero point to putting games on xbox where people don't buy anything and they only have ten percent global market share.
Third party games sell less than 20 percent of total units versus PlayStation, even less when a game is on all three platforms.
Shawn Layden put it best. The big tent pole games are at their significance at the beginning of a gen, but a little less near the half way or end of a gen because you set the sales momentum with the best games.
That's why Xbox had momentum at the end of 2021 with Halo and Forza. All got lost in 2022 with the delay of Redfall and Starfield. While PS released Horizon and GoW in 2022 which pulled them waaaay ahead of Xbox.
The ones who say exclusives don't matter anymore are seriously wrong, dead wrong. As I said they shift the console sales momentum in your favor especially when you couple it with a major third party release l like COD. That's why in 2022 COD leading the charge that holiday for PS along side Gow an established IP was a deadly combo. Something MS did during the 360 days. Cod on top of whatever game Xbox was releasing that holiday also.
That's why they've been having tug of war with COD because it brings in money and console sales.
In all honesty Sony will see those Switch sales and probably put smaller family friendly games on the platform when they see more green from Switch, expect more of that. This is exactly how it started with Xbox. PC first, then Switch with games like Ori, 007, Cup Head, Banjo etc now PS will follow suit.
But their big game system selling games will remain exclusive (so they can sell consoles) then come to PC year later or so. Basically they'll have timed exclusives.
I hope it hypothetically Sony did make their games multiplatform there’s a massive outcry for Nintendo to make their games third party
Ohhhhh…yeah, they won’t will they
Whenever Microsoft does something it’s only Sony that needs to then do the same.
A fantastic update is on the way to Total War: Warhammer 3 – which will have Khorne, Ogre Kingdoms, and Greenskins taking center stage, set to release later this year.
From witnessing countless ai generated articles and content it's clear ai is not very creative and often produces nothing but word soup so I'd like to keep ai away from storyline or side quests as much as possible
Where does ai have a place I think ai can be used effectively in upscaling technology or the remastering process for older games touching up assert etc however it must be done with human supervision ala GTA trilogy where it was used but clearly not vetted before being included in the game
I mean the core issue with AI is exactly what it's substituting. Generating visual art is a perfect example of this. Currently, if you want to use AI to generate anything short of a background, you are going to deal with numerous drawbacks. From anatomy issues in humans and animals to completely broken fonts for logos and visibly recycled styles.
But when it comes to writing, things are a bit messy. There are indeed extremely talented writers out there working on video games. But there are also a lot of them who really aren't, and we all know it. Take games like the recent Suicide Squad or Starfield; those game scripts could very well have been done by AI.
Another issue with AI writers that is often pointed out is the ludonarrative issue. Basically, AI, by its very nature, wouldn't be able to write within the context of the game mechanics and scenarios, which would lead to a lot of ludonarrative problems and break immersion. However, against that argument, one need not look further than The Last of Us Part II. That game is a embodiment of ludonarrative issues and is still considered by many as one of the best games and game stories out there, so it's clear that for the majority of the market, that would not be an issue.
So AI, with all its limitations right now, probably wouldn't hurt game stories as much as the writers would like gamers to believe. I doubt that it would improve what we have now, but given what we have now, I also doubt that it would be measurably worse.
Games made by Ubisoft, Activision, EA and Bathesda already feel soulless.
As it stands right now, AI is really good at taking existing concepts that a human imagines and then organizing them into a coherent story. You still need creativity, but I think having a "room of writers" is probably no longer necessary. So in that regard AI is taking jobs. For instance, let's say I provide AI with a number of characters and what their personalities are. I might say, (if making a murder mystery) the Butler who seems like the protagonist is actually the killer. If you try this, AI will do a pretty fantastic job of writing dialogue between characters that would lead you, as the reader, not to suspect who the killer is. Normally a writer works with other writers and breaks a story down into parts where the characters motives start as unclear and then progressively become revealed. AI does a really nice job with foreshadowing also. You can also tell AI to incorporates symbolism, and misdirection. TLDR; I'll never not use AI when writing a story. It's just a tool that when used properly will make good writing great.
Horrible future awaiting us all.