Resident Evil and Street Fighter series developer Capcom is experimenting with introducing new technology, including generative AI, to tackle the ballooning costs and man-hours required for game development. In a recent interview with Google Cloud Japan, Kazuki Abe, a technical director at Capcom, gave some specific examples of what this involves. Based on his explanation, it doesn’t seem like Capcom is trying to use AI to generate anything directly related to gameplay, stories or character designs.
According to Abe, one of the most time-consuming and labor-intensive parts of game development is coming up with the “hundreds of thousands of unique ideas” needed to create the in-game environment. For example, if you want to put a TV inside of your game, you can’t just use an existing product as is – you need to think of a fictional TV design from scratch, including the manufacturer’s logo and everything else about the object.
…'cause creating a fictional TV is creative work. xD
It definitely can be if a creative does it. Look at Max Payne, Persona 4, or Golden Light (pictured) if you want to see examples of artists doing it well. What absolutely won’t create a fictional TV that is elevated to the level of “good video game art” is some trash theft model.