CEO of GTA 6 publisher Take-Two isn't worried about AI-generated slop games: 'It’s built on data that already exists, it’s backward-looking—big hits are forward-looking'

Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer art — (Image credit: Rockstar Games)

Generative AI has shunted its great technological heft into all sorts of industries over the past few years—and videogames aren't an exception, not by a long-shot.

Voice actors in America are embroiled in a battle over rights to their own vocal likeness, studios with enough money to do better are bending over backwards to avoid paying artists, and no matter how many backlashes they endure, social media accounts keep thinking they can just rinse properties through a generator and call it a day.

That's not to say it doesn't have its uses—frame generation's neat, and deep-learning tech has lots of annoying busywork to automate, but the way you see some execs talk about it, generative AI is somehow the future of everything. Soon we'll be able to simply ask a machine to generate a game we want to play—and isn't that better? Not really, says CEO of Take-Two Strauss Zelnick, a publisher that's currently bankrolling a tiny little game called Grand Theft Auto 6.

That's as per an interview with Carolyn Dailey in her book The Creative Entrepreneur (thanks, GamesRadar+). Zelnick is sounding pretty whelmed by the tech, overall: "I’m not worried about AI creating hits, because it’s built on data that already exists. It’s backward-looking. Big hits are forward-looking and therefore need to be created out of thin air. Being the most creative means not just thinking outside the box; it means there is no box."

I'm skeptical as to whether generative AI can actually produce a cohesive videogame you'd want to, y'know, invest time into—but supposing it can in the near future, Zelnick isn't that far off the mark, here. Stuff like the garish Ghibli-style AI generated art is eerily competent, and it might send ripples through social media, but in terms of making anything that has a lasting impact on people, I don't think anyone cares.

It's a sentiment that Zelnick sort of echoes while talking to Dailey—if you want to make something that actually gets the people going, he says that you need to "Hire the best creators and insist they pursue their passions. Encourage them to always try something new and to stay away from derivative and copycat works … in Hollywood it’s common to pitch your product as 'it’s a combination of Spiderman meets Batman meets Back to the Future' … We don’t do that here; we want something that you’ve never seen before."

I'm not so naive as to believe that a game predominantly made with generative AI won't be successful at some point, though. It's not happened yet, but given one of the most-played games on Steam has you clicking on a banana jpeg, anything's possible. But it's also weirdly reassuring to have Zelnick—the head honcho at a publisher pushing a game so massive, other publishers are scrambling to escape the looming shadow of it—saying 'thanks, but no thanks'.

TOPICS

Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.