Most modern games are already using generative AI, even as players remain largely unaware of its role
Industry data suggests AI adoption is far more widespread than studios are willing to admit.
The use of artificial intelligence in a medium like video games is seen as a double-edged sword. And although AI has been used for many years in more procedural, generative contexts, its current use—as we know it today, as a content generator via prompts—is not to everyone’s liking. Despite this resistance, it’s likely that some of your games are already using these tools, and you don’t even know it.
In an interview with mobilegamer.biz, Jack Buser, Google Cloud’s Global Director for Games, spoke with the publication during GDC, where he revealed key details about a tool that, while not used to build the entire game from scratch, has become a key component of the development process.
“The cost of game development across the entire industry, including mobile, has nearly doubled since 2017,” Buser noted. “More than half of all playtime is spent on games that are over six years old. So you’re spending twice as much to reach less than half of the audience.” Much of this growth goes unnoticed by studios, making the cost-benefit ratio of production unclear.
Nine out of 10 developers use AI
“One of the big problems that they have is they’re building these massive worlds and they’ve got to fill it with content,” explains Buser. “What they’re doing is they’re using Nano Banana and Gemini to rapidly generate just countless ideas, and then they’re talking to Gemini to actually go through those ideas and curate them…and of these thousands of things, here are the ones that are probably most interesting to you as the art director.”
“I think what players don’t realise is that their favourite games right now were already built with AI,” Buser points out in the interview. “We did a survey around Gamescom last summer with studios all over the world. Roughly nine out of 10 game developers told us, yeah, we’re using it. Now you’ll see other surveys from other organisations that have that more around like 40-50%. And you might ask yourself, well, that’s still a large number. It’s still almost half of the developers out there. What’s that gap? And that gap is basically the developers willingness to tell you whether the fact of the matter is it’s being used.”
Related stories
Using AI to generate assets as placeholders has become a standard part of development, and failing to remove them in a timely manner has sparked backlash from people on social media. To what extent is generative AI being used? How should artists and developers use it, if at all? How should users feel about these changes? These are some questions that keep the debate—assuming the AI bubble doesn’t burst first.
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