Somewhat inevitably, rumors that Generative AI was going to be baked into the next generation of consoles were going to appear sooner rather than later, and it is the (probably) in development PlayStation 6 where the two shall first meet
Despite the turmoil in the other main camp, we reported yesterday that there are perhaps not one, but two new Xbox consoles on the design table. The rumors around a Nintendo Switch 2 being launched this year won’t go away.
As anybody who has been gaming for a couple of generations of new hardware will be aware, we know it goes along the lines of Microsoft and Sony both announce new consoles with relatively similar hardware. Fanboys on each side of the fence point out why each will be better than the other. Nintendo pops along with a console that is seemingly vastly underpowered compared to its two rivals and sells over 30 million units in Japan alone and many more worldwide. All the while the PC master race sits back quietly and chuckles that none of them are a patch on PC gaming when it comes to hardware specs.
So what could possibly new new this time? AI that’s what.
YouTuber Moore’s Law is Dead has had a lot of coverage in the last few days, both in relation to Microsoft and Sony leaks. However, in the video below he claims to have heard that a key feature being designed into the PlayStation 6 will be the ability for AI to enhance the games it plays on the hoof.
The prospect of a console actively enhancing NPCs so that they don’t just operate with static lines of pre-recorded scripts is either amazing, or possibly scary (especially if you make your living as a voice actor), and even if any new machine is a few years away, it still seems far off in terms of what generative AI is capable of. And then, of course, Sony doesn’t make the games in the main. Would GTA VI ever be coded differently to take advantage of this on a PlayStation? That would make it a totally different game to an Xbox version unless it happens in a new Xbox as well.
Generative AI is coming to gaming, make no bones about it and it will be interesting to see how it ends up actually manifesting itself inside our next generation of gaming consoles.
Featured Image: AI-generated by Dalle-E 3
