Final Fantasy 15's director believes that game developers should familiarize themselves with generative AI.
As reported by 4Gamer and translated by Automaton Media, former Final Fantasy 15 director Hajime Tabata recently appeared in an online discussion on the future of games, appearing alongside former Square Enix president Yoichi Wada. Speaking on game developers that have never used generative AI, Tabata said that this standpoint is unsuitable for game developers.
"Looking back, it had a singular impact on society," Tabata said of generative AI in 2023, adding that it was one of the biggest influences on the gaming industry at large over the past year. Tabata also added that in order to be a creator, one should be open to the possibility of utilizing new technologies, including AI, VR, Web3, and the Metaverse.
The former Final Fantasy developer also added that game developers should consider AI through the lens of how it could potentially change the world, instead of their own personal opinions on it. "While it is important whether or not you like the game yourself, game creation is a service industry, so you can only make money if you provide people with a satisfying product," Tabata said.
"For example, with generative AI, you should try to use it before other people, and try paid services even if there is a free version available," Tabata continued on the topic. "You should be interested in digging around for each new thing that comes out," he concluded.
Tabata is no longer working with Square Enix, but its current president, Takashi Kiryu, wrote earlier this year that he intended the company to be more "aggressive" in using AI in game development going forward. "I believe that generative AI has the potential not only to reshape what we create, but also to fundamentally change the processes by which we create, including programming," Kiryu wrote at the time.
Even before Kiryu's presidency at Square Enix, his predecessor Yosuke Matsuda went big on NFT technologies. Matsuda would also hype on blockchain technologies being used in game development, both of which were met with considerable backlash at the time from Square Enix fans around the world. It's yet to be revealed how Square Enix will utilize these technologies in its games going forward.
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