Recently Netflix cuts staff as it begins closing some of its gaming studios. Among them is an AAA studio in Los Angeles founded by Chaco Sonny, the former executive producer of Overwatch. And now Netflix has announced that its gaming division is investing in generative artificial intelligence.
This is done in order to «accelerate the development process and create truly innovative gaming experiences that will surprise, delight, and inspire players». Apparently, the idea is to have the work of authors and developers performed by AI. For those employees who were laid off and lost their jobs due to the studio’s closure, this was an additional blow. At the same time, Mike Verdue, Netflix’s vice president of generative AI in the gaming division, announced his new position in a post on LinkedI.
It is still unclear to what extent «quality» AI is used in game development. When it comes to generative AI used to create images, it is common to see flaws such as strange hands or identical faces, which creates a «sinister valley» effect. Time will tell whether this will be transferred to games —. Recently, Google CEO Sundar Pichai saidthat a quarter of the company’s new code is written by artificial intelligence.
Verdu added that all these changes in the company were not accidental:
«Don’t pay attention to media speculation about changes to Netflix Games. In fact, what you’ve seen in recent months — is a planned transition»
However, this does not diminish the fact that the studio was closed and 35 people lost their jobs, especially if the plan is to replace their work with AI.
It remains to be seen how Netflix plans to use generative AI in its gaming division. This opens up a lot of possibilities, as game engines with generative AI are already emerging that can be used to create concept art, voice acting, in-game dialogues, etc.
«I’m focused on a vision of AI where creativity is at the center and AI is the catalyst and accelerator. AI will allow large game teams to work much faster, and it will also provide an almost unimaginable set of new opportunities for developers from smaller teams,» Verdu said.
Source: wccftech