A WIRED investigation finds that major players like Activision Blizzard, which recently laid off scores of workers, are using generative AI for game development.

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Video games—and the people who make them—are in trouble. An estimated 10,500 people in the industry were laid off in 2023 alone. This year, layoffs in the nearly $200 billion sector have only gotten worse, with studios axing what is believed to be 11,000 more, and counting. Microsoft, home of the Xbox and parent company to several studios, including Activision Blizzard, shuttered Tango Gameworks and Alpha Dog Games in May. All the while, generative AI systems built by OpenAI and its competitors have been seeping into nearly every industry, dismantling whole careers along the way.

But gaming might be the biggest industry AI stands poised to conquer. Its economic might has long since eclipsed Hollywood’s, while its workforce remains mostly nonunion. A recent survey from the organizers of the Game Developers Conference found that 49 percent of the survey’s more than 3,000 respondents said their workplace used AI, and four out of five said they had ethical concerns about its use.

  • Flying Squid
    11•4 months ago

    I’m glad I got out of the VO biz when I did. I heard the most recent ChatGPT iteration with simulated emotional responses. People like me won’t be needed much longer, especially for game voices that don’t involve big name talent (which I definitely wasn’t).

    Of course, then I went into video editing, and now all the middle managers are being expected to do that with cheap or free entry-level video editors with video they shot on their phones.

    Sigh.