Kiby’s papa spitting hotfire about the need for change

In what remains a tragic habituality within my world, I possess a vast reservoir of energy and will to write, and nearly no temporal moments to spare on executing on my imaginative fervor.

I will leave you with a notion related to one of my last write ups, which in an honesty, felt incomplete in it’s own premise in reference to citation or structure, the one relating to the idea of AI being left in the hands of the developers, in the name of strengthening workers rights instead of terminating them. I ran across excerpts from an interview involving the Super Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai, and his take helping to reinforce the same sentiments I was helping to frame, with more insight and experience at his back, but most definitely within the realm of reason I was attempting to put forth.

Sakurai had this to say involving the industry, and his viewpoint of where AI comes into play:

“I think it is becoming unsustainable to continue producing large games on the scale that companies currently do, as it requires too much work. the only effective breakthrough I can think of at the moment is generative AI. I think we are getting to the point where (AAA studios) have to change their way of working by using gen AI to improve work efficiency. I think we are in an era where only the companies that successfully respond to these changes will be able to survive.”

With just one further addendum, the industry is too bloated in its own machinations from top to bottom; profit margins, development costs, workers equity, release schedules, content issues, you name it, the industry is in dire straights in dealing with “it”. As Sakurai points out, we need a new refinement available to the creators that are leading the charge, and a careful consideration on how to make this day to day sustainable, or we are headed right off a cliff, and it will be too late to course correct to we hit rock bottom.

Let’s come up with a better plan then a crash as a wake up call to correct our path forward. As always, I think this is a worthy topic that will continue to not only plague us, but to develop as time goes on, as the industry doesn’t look like it will slowdown in terms of issues involving layoffs or development teams shuttering anytime soon, and is a worthwhile reminder why it’s so vital we all be cognizant of where we can do better, and how best to arm ourselves with both reason and empathy, in continually refining how best to improve the standards of our industry, one day at a time.

-Pashford