Imagine a world where there were no game delays, and developers can release titles or DLC bundles more often to meet the demands of their audiences. It’s hard to picture, but this is what Activision Blizzard is attempting to do through its AI tests.
Most games already have some form of AI that’s often used to help NPCs react or make decisions in games. However, Blizzard is taking it a step further—the company is trying to speed up its creative process by using its own image generator, which top dev bosses believe will redevelop how they can build games.
This internal tool is called Blizzard Diffusion, the New York Times reports.
By feeding assets from their titles, such as Diablo, World of Warcraft, and Overwatch, Blizzard’s devs can allegedly create images and concept art that can then be used to help speed up their creative process in an industry that is so often filled with delays.
The publishers also believe these tools will help remove the repetitive actions in the creative process and help streamline things for creators. It could help create intelligent NPCs, level designs, game coding, and voice cloning, and help prevent toxicity in their titles, they say.
While there are positives that can come of this, especially if it means fewer delays for games, there is a debate around AI and whether it will lead to job losses as well as how these concept images could cause copyright issues.
Due to these issues, AI is still a gray area. But the benefits of meeting demands, releasing games and content on time, or even writing narratives may outweigh the negatives.
