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Last month, Game File reported that Netflix had unceremoniously shuttered one of its internal development studios, "Team Blue". Likely having spent vast sums on securing splashy talents like longtime Halo creative lead Joseph Staten and God of War art director Raffael Grassetti, those hires are now gone. Netflix will instead pivot to the pursuit of generative AI in development.
The LinkedIn post of newly minted VP of GenAI for Games Mike Verdu is currently making waves in a buttoned-up, corporate corner of the industry (thanks, GamesIndustry.biz). It announces that Former Epic Games executive Alain Tascaion will take over Verdu's previous role as president of Netflix Games, freeing the VP up to work on "driving a 'once in a generation' inflexion point for game development and player experiences"—with generative AI at the heart of it."
Verdu warns onlookers to "pay no mind to uninformed speculation in the media about changes at Netflix Games", so feel free to disregard our take. Instead, rest assured that things are headed in the right direction, as Verdu explains: "Many view this technology with fear, but I am a game-maker at heart, and I see its potential to unlock all of us, to create mind-blowing new experiences for players, to lift us to new heights. Yes, we'll have to adapt and change, but when have we failed to meet that challenge as an industry?"
Do you think Netflix Games is on the right path? The above, presumably AI-generated image accompanied Verdu's post; note that the roads don't actually reach the utopian city or lead anywhere worthwhile at all in the comments below.
[source linkedin.com]
Comments 26
Got to love when companies with no plan or knowledge of an industry create a new high budget team, do nothing, then close it.
All these executives heard how much money Apple make from gaming, wanted to get in on a piece of that, and then found it out takes tens of millions and 8 years to get an ROI and now want an out.
Netflix, another junkie chasing that elusive (and purely fictional) AI-dominant game development dragon.
I'm quite sure, in the near future, some games will feature some sort of label saying Made by Humans or something to that effect.
I'm not against AI when it comes to game development, but it should be used as a supplementary tool for repetitive and/or monotonous tasks.
AI shouldn't be leveraged to replace actual developers to create games.
And so it begins…
@N1ghtW1ng AI generated code, images, and writing isn’t even copyrightable yet in the U.S. Betting on that horse seems a little dangerous as of right now.
Very glad i stopped giving money to these clowns before now.
The games netflix have on offer are not something that interests me. I use netflix for movies and TV series..I have a ps5 for games.
@Northern_munkey "...I use netflix for movies and TV series." which are also AI generated...
@IamJT
You make a valid point, but these AI generated content have (or will) appeared within media that are copyright protected themselves.
Also, unless you're part of the development team or have insider-knowledge, it might be very difficult for a consumer to distinguish between content created organically (for the lack of a better word) from AI generated content.
“I see its potential to unlock all of us”
Read: I see its potential to get us all sacked.
Depends what he means. I’d be happy for ai to take the actually coding work away and free up people to be more creative. The industry is in desperate need of technology that can reduce the cost and, critically, time it takes to make AAA games. There are things I wouldn’t want ai to do. Such as replace human voice actors, who will inevitably bring more emotion to a performance, but there are so many areas where it could help.
@N1ghtW1ng Hoe can you copyright something that AI can't create two times. AI in the end a bunch of stolen assets. I have seen a nice interview were she says close to nothing.
And the training excuse on content is even a bigger lie they can't even say how and from where they get there content from on which they are training.
@Flaming_Kaiser
You raise a really good point.
I'm not sure what the copyright laws are when it comes to a piece of media, such as games, which is made up of elements that themselves are copyrightable.
Maybe the game is the only copyrightable element overall, and everything making up the game falls under the same broad copyright given to a game?
You wonder if this was always the plan. Maybe they even knew.
Maybe they even have a contract in which they get royalties.
They hand over their skills so the AI can learn.
Technically all AI needs is the basics of how they code and they go from there.
Or maybe Netflix, had this plan all the time to steal their talents for the AI to learn.
@N1ghtW1ng The problem I see with AI tons of content it looks really alike. I don't like that it's all a bit of the same things slightly altered. Also I can't stop and laugh when people call themselves AI artist you don't create anything.
Its just a mishmash of variables that if you type it in two times it will never recreate a piece of art in the end it will be the 1% that will profit the most of this not the worker in this case the artist that is a certainty.
To hell with AI!
"Netflix will instead pivot to the pursuit of generative AI in development." 🤦🏽♀️
I will not buy anything with AI generated content.
@djlard yes but I don't play the games. Makes no difference to me..
did they make any games. but same as amazon and google they recruited all these big name people and then realised how long it takes
And this is actually illegal where is the cwa with there allegations against netflix oh there suing sony for closing a studio after loosing half a billion dollars
If you think games are generic today, wait 10 years
Yeah, I guess I'm done with games.
The rise of AI hasn’t seemingly improved the rate at which developers create games or made the quality of them any better.
I wish all these tech firms would just be honest and say they’re looking to reduce their work staff and generate more profit by having AI replace real jobs without the intention of actually making anything better. It sounds scummy, but it’s honest. I can trust honest more than I can trust meaded words.
As in most films with regard to AI. AI will be the figurative (and possibly literal) death of humanity!
I know, "it's exponential, it will quickly get much better", but every AI generated art that I see looks eerily soulless.
Wokeflix + AI... I can't wait to see what kind of turd they make.
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