The advent of generative AI has been a major talking point in the gaming industry. Where many believe AI will be critical to the future of game development, others like Elon Musk have much more dramatic views of the technology, believing it will create entire games without human assistance eventually.
Google’s latest iteration of the Genie AI model may have taken one step toward a future where AI seemingly creates games out of thin air. In response to this technology, investors also appear to be terrified, leading to major shifts in the stocks of various game studios.
At the time of writing, a major publisher like Take-Two has seen a sudden decline of nearly 10% to its stock price in a single day. The company’s shares are currently selling for $216.68 compared to the price of $239.27 yesterday.
Similarly, Roblox Corp’s stock has fallen by 12%, bringing it to $66.57. A studio like CD Projekt RED is facing a similar situation, with the stock price down by 8% today after briefly rising to nearly 300 PLN. According to reports, Google Genie 3 is to blame for this shift in the market.
This tool is capable of creating interactive worlds in real time, showing potential to rival games at some point in the future. Genie 3’s capabilities are already taking the internet by storm, with sample worlds mimicking games like Dark Souls with great accuracy.
Of course, the tool can only do so much for now, and it would be a stretch to compare its creations with actual games full of content. The question of copyright infringement also remains a major talking point with Genie 3, since it appears to be using assets from popular games when creating these worlds.
Still, it seems shareholders are not taking Genie 3 lightly, even at this early stage of its development.
Although major companies like Take-Two and CD Projekt RED should be able to recover from the current dips in share prices, the current scenario raises an interesting question about the future of game development.
With AI slowly becoming ingrained in game development and models like Genie 3 advancing further, AI’s role in the industry could be far greater than anybody could have imagined. Here’s hoping games still retain their creative elements if this ends up being the case.
