CD Projekt Red’s co-CEO Michał Nowakowski believes entire games based on generative AI, or at least largely on AI, could be incoming in the near future although he isn’t certain whether that would be the right path to go into. In a new interview with GamesRadar+, Nowakowski stated that he had words with a studio lead who confirmed that multiple videogames are in the works that has heavy AI usage, and while the CD Projekt exec understands that AI integration might be an inevitability for game development, he currently remains skeptical of the direction the industry is headed into.
“I was in a conversation with a person who started a studio and was telling me: ‘I’m running a primarily AI-based studio. I can have 40 prototypes within a week, two weeks from now I can have five games that I chose are going to be the best, and three weeks from now, I’m actually launching a game.’
“Maybe that’s going to be successful, but I have some doubts whether this is really the path to follow.”
While AI usage can really augment and speed up the overall process of game developments, it can also significantly take away the human characteristics and qualities that make a videogame experience what it is. In today’s age of unprecedented use of technology, especially in the videogame industry, it’s all too easy to lose sight of the fact that it’s the human element that ultimately define every aspects of a game and make those memorable.
The limitation with AI is that it can’t invent and can only iterate, so games that are now praised as having timeless gameplay like Dishonored, Ninja Gaiden, Crysis–all became what they are cause of the human element of creativity and innovation that went into those titles.
CD Project’s next AAA heavyweight title is The Witcher 4 which is not expected to arrive before 2027, at the very least.
