The use of artificial intelligence is a hot topic, and the CEO of Epic Games has certainly weighed in on the matter.
Over the past few months, game publishers and developers have focused all their efforts on generative AI, arguing that it speeds up and improves the development process.To help players make informed purchasing decisions, Valve has started to enforce disclosure requirements regarding the use of AI on the Steam platform. Sweeney considers this a negative impact and an irresponsible move on the company’s part.
“It’s unfortunate that so many developers are now in this position.If you want to launch a game and get it widely publicized, you have to put it on Steam so people can add it to their wish lists. If you want to play the game on Steam, you have to attach this Scarlet Letter of AI to your product. Now, there’s a community of haters trying to kill the game.I think it’s really irresponsible of Valve.They shouldn’t do it because it makes it much harder for a game developer to succeed.You have to choose between not using tools that could make you much more productive and probably failing due to competition that does use them,” Sweeney told PCGamer in a new interview.
Although Sweeney is not entirely wrong on this issue, Valve is by no means acting irresponsibly with this move. Consumers have the right to know how the products they purchase are made, and they must have all the necessary information to make decisions that align with their convictions and demand for transparency. It’s no surprise that Sweeney strongly advocates for the use of AI in game development, given that the upcoming Unreal Engine 6 is built entirely around AI integration. Sweeney reiterated his position that using AI helps developers spend more time on what really matters, such as story and gameplay.
“You can go to a library like the Fab Content site or the Unity Asset Store and purchase a flower pot. There’s a whole economy around creating content. That’s great, but you’re limited to a set of existing objects. Scanning only works for things that already exist—you can’t scan an alien. The content libraries only work for things that have already been created. If you have a game with a unique look and feel, you need unique content. AI is a way to achieve that economically, making it competitive with Fab, scanning, and other methods, but it works for a larger category of objects. The value isn’t in creating a perfect flower pot. It would be folly to spend a million dollars creating a flower pot because the real value lies in building the scene, the game, the narrative, the gameplay, and making it awesome and appealing to gamers,” Sweeney added.
The only remaining question is why he is pushing AI so hard.
