Elon Musk's AI-fuelled fever dream gets even hotter as he promises his AI game studio is going to release a 'great' game before the end of 2026

GLENDALE, ARIZONA - SEPTEMBER 21: Tesla CEO Elon Musk attends the memorial service for political activist Charlie Kirk at State Farm Stadium on September 21, 2025 in Glendale, Arizona. Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of Turning Point USA, was shot and killed on September 10th while speaking at an event during his "American Comeback Tour" at Utah Valley University. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) — (Image credit: Getty Images)

Remember when Elon Musk, the world's wealthiest man and owner of Tesla, SpaceX, and X, said that too many game companies are owned by giant corporations and so his giant corporation was going to start a game studio to "make games great again?" And even better, in the completely ironic sense, it was going to be "an AI game studio?" Apparently he wasn't kidding: Work is apparently progressing, as Musk said on X that the studio's debut game will be out sometime in 2026.

"The XAI game studio will release a great AI-generated game before the end of next year," Musk wrote on X, reposting a short clip of what is apparently Grok-created animation of a guy on a unicycle charging a burning tank while firing an automatic rifle that another X user said, correctly, "looks like absolute dogshit."

The XAI game studio will release a great AI-generated game before the end of next year https://t.co/F14rJXNzk9October 6, 2025

That's the extent of the update so it's not much to go on, but I think it's interesting because of the way Musk brought the whole thing up entirely unprompted. I speculated when this AI game studio was 'announced' that it was unlikely to go anywhere but held out hope that it might, strictly for the potential spectacle, not unlike his train wreck purchase of Twitter. Dragging it all back into the light a year later points to some level of commitment, which doesn't necessarily mean this thing will actually be finished—but it might.

Will the xAI game studio release something in 2026? It's possible, sure. Videogames made with generative AI already exist and there's no reason Musk's company can't belch out something similar. The catch is that bit about it being "great." It's a subjective term but one that most of us can probably agree on in at least the broad strokes.

Is the cybertruck a great vehicle? No. Is it great that Musk spends so many hours on X posting racism, transphobia, and AI slop? Again, I would say no. Is xAI's AI-generated videogame going to be great? Look, anything is possible, but I think you can guess which way I'm leaning.

Around the same time Musk announced that his AI-powered game studio is doing something, he also predicted that his Grok AI "will make a movie that is at least watchable before the end of next year and really good movies in 2027."

Grok will make a movie that is at least watchable before the end of next year and really good movies in 2027 https://t.co/5Fy42WRFLMOctober 6, 2025

He also confirmed that another of his ideas that I assumed was either a joke or a heat-of-the-moment utterance to be forgotten is in fact moving ahead as a real thing: An early beta version of Grokipedia, an AI-powered 'replacement' for Wikipedia, is set to go live later this month.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.