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Elon Musk has taken to X to claim that xAI, his artificial intelligence company, will “start an AI game studio to make games great again!” Musk states that “too many games studios” are “owned by massive corporations.”
It is unclear if xAI will go through with Musk’s proposed idea. However, generative AI has already seen a rise in use in the gaming development space. Activision-Blizzard, makers of World of Warcraft and Call of Duty have already been found to use it in recent purchasable skins and icons.
A generated version of Minecraft has also made the rounds, and coding potential through language models like Claude 3.5 has taken some developers by storm. However, AI sentiment amongst those in the gaming industry has been negative as jobs could be put at risk.
Too many game studios that are owned by massive corporations. @xAI is going to start an AI game studio to make games great again! https://t.co/UR4nFODyfd
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 27, 2024
The comments are responding to a post by the creator of Dogecoin. In the post, they state that they “don’t understand how game developers and game journalism got so ideologically captured” and that players can “tell when someone is an outsider poser”. Musk has been vocal about his opposition to more left-leaning entities, like games studios.
Musk responded to another post, which questioned DEI. Portions of the audience have also gotten themselves into a fervor over “DEI” (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) after discovering consultancy services and pledges from companies to be more inclusive.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 27, 2024
These have been used by bad actors trying to whip up negative sentiment amongst minority developers and games with inclusive casts of characters.
Musk recently railed against Avowed, a new game from Obsidian. The screenshot shows pronouns for the character.
Having pronouns in a fantasy video game is utterly unacceptable 😡 https://t.co/h5ISGFBJZT
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 24, 2024
The user it stems from is Mark Kern, who worked at Blizzard. Since then, he has launched shuttered MMO Firefall and is embroiled in controversy surrounding the fundraising for his current game.
On Bluesky, an X competitor, Obsidian’s art director for Avowed, Matt Hansen, claims that “I wanted so badly to make him mad with my game, and I cannot believe it actually happened.”
The official xAI website hasn’t posted anything about game development, and Musk has made no direct allusions about what he wants developed.
Musk proposes xAI made game as gaming tackles its future
These comments also come as gaming wrestles with its future. While gaming sales have never been bigger, this year has seen companies worldwide slash staff in mass layoffs. Netflix recently shut down its gaming studio before it had even shipped a game.
On top of this, major corporations like Sony and Microsoft currently find their PlayStation and Xbox brands trying to find their next big success.
Sony is partially pivoting from its live service gaming pivot, as multiplayer shooter Concord was pulled down in a matter of two weeks. While some fans have claimed its inclusive nature was the issue, it is primarily due to the industry’s saturation of free online games as companies try to topple powerhouses like Fortnite.
Microsoft’s Xbox brand, despite purchasing a large number of companies since the launch of Game Pass, its subscription service, has struggled to put out a huge success. It has also seen console sales drop dramatically.
Outside of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 – in development way before Microsoft bought Activision – and the upcoming Indiana Jones game, Xbox games in 2024 have been missing or plagued with issues.
Xbox’s latest major release, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, has been lambasted for its glitchy performance as it adopts new streaming technologies. Stalker 2, a timed-exclusive and Game Pass title, has also been slammed for its buggy state.
Featured image: Wikicommons, NARA
