EA CEO Andrew Wilson pushes Generative AI use in game development despite industry reservations on the topic.
Ahead of its widespread implementation, EA CEO Andrew Wilson is eager to implement generative AI despite the industry’s divided reception of the concept. On a Tuesday call with investors, Wilson stated that generative AI is being integrated “as quickly as possible” into the development process. He believes the technology could enable EA to “create more entertaining, innovative, and large games more quickly,” which is their “holy grail.”
Wilson is an evident supporter of artificial intelligence. The executive boasted in March that EA was “AI-native” and that AI had already been integrated into a portion of its games’ player runs. Due to the tendency for modern video games to be quite large, he continued, AI could accelerate the game development process. Wilson also bizarrely conceived of an EA AI platform where “three billion players worldwide could contribute personal content and help [EA] expand and improve the universes it creates.” (This appears to be a post-bong copy blab, as described by PCGamer.)
Conversely, Wilson believes AI is nearly prepared to “positively impact” at least fifty percent of EA’s daily game development processes. Tuesday’s investor call comments by Wilson cite an early evaluation of EA’s entire development pipeline as the basis for this conclusion. “As we think about the first pillar of generative AI for us, we’re looking at how it can make us more efficient—how can it give our developers more power, how can it give them back more time and allow them to get to the fun more quickly?” Wilson declared. “And we’ve got teams across the company looking to execute against that.”
Wilson explained that generative AI, despite its infancy, is anticipated to attain sufficient proficiency within the coming years to revolutionize the gaming industry fundamentally. “We expect that over a three- to five-year time horizon, we will be able to, as part of our massive online communities and blockbuster storytelling, build bigger, more immersive worlds that engage more players uniquely around the world,” he explained to investors.
The timing of Wilson’s remarks is problematic for the gaming industry. Microsoft unexpectedly ceased operations of several Bethesda studios, including Arkane Austin (creator of Redfall) and Tango Gameworks (developer of Hi-Fi Rush and The Evil Within). Then, it bemoaned to its staff the need for additional successful games similar to those they had just produced. (Tango reportedly proposed Microsoft a sequel to Hi-Fi Rush at its closure.) With 45 personnel, Paladin Studios, a mobile and independent game developer founded in 1999, ceased operations. Lightforge Games, an entirely remote studio founded in 2021 by former developers of Blizzard and Epic Games, laid off most of its staff after failing to secure financing for its cross-platform role-playing game.
It is puzzling how Wilson deemed his remarks regarding artificial intelligence (AI) suitable amidst the most catastrophic period for game developers, mainly because EA terminated a minimum of one thousand employees between March 2023 and February 2024. Wilson stated that EA required a personnel reduction before the most recent decrease to “accelerate innovation” and “streamline company operations.” At least some former employees now know how their positions have been—or will be—refined.
Wilson made an admirable effort to reassure investors and others that artificial intelligence would not “replace our work” but “enhance, augment, extend, and broaden the scope of interactive entertainment, much as YouTube revolutionized traditional film and television.” Wilson presumably needs to be informed of YouTube’s impact on television.