The creative director of Bethesda Game Studios (BGS) also discussed the use of artificial intelligence.

Will Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto VI be released before The Elder Scrolls VI? Power Unlimited posed this question to Todd Howard, creative director of BGS, at the premiere of the second season of Amazon’s Fallout TV series, which will be available on Prime Video starting December 17. Howard suggested that Grand Theft Auto VI will indeed be released before the studio’s next major project. He then expressed his great respect and admiration for Rockstar’s work.

“I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Grand Theft Auto VI will be released before The Elder Scrolls VI and Fallout 5. Rockstar is doing an incredible job. I know the folks at Rockstar, and I think they’re some of the absolute best at bringing a virtual world to life. It’s a world that feels like it would go on even if you weren’t there,” he said.

Fallout 5 is not a realistic possibility because it is still in the pre-production phase, and BGS is focused on completing The Elder Scrolls VI. Moreover, it hasn’t even been a month since Todd Howard told fans that The Elder Scrolls VI is still a long way off. He also said that he wants the game to be released when it’s ready. However, the chances of that happening before November 19, the new release date for Grand Theft Auto VI, are practically zero. Howard then talked about the use of AI. BGS does not use AI to generate content. However, the studio and publisher see AI as merely the latest addition to evolving development practices and standards.

“I view it as a tool. First, creative intention comes from human artists. But I think we should look at it as a tool to help us go through iterations faster. We’re always working on our toolset for building worlds and checking things. If you go back 10 years, you wouldn’t want to use that version of Photoshop. That’s our view on it. But we want to protect the artistry. The human intention is what makes our work special,” Howard added.

Even if BGS somehow manages to circumvent Microsoft’s internal AI requirements, it is interesting that Howard compared non-AI-based workflows to using a 10-year-old version of Photoshop, because artists have been choosing outdated Photoshop versions for more than a decade. In 2013, Adobe switched its Creative Suite to a monthly subscription pricing model. This decision was widely criticized, and Adobe’s reputation for filling Photoshop with features that users often ignored meant that many were happy to stick with the reliable Photoshop CS6.

Source: WCCFTech, PCGamer, Eurogamer