'One Person Can Perform the Work of 100 People' — Boss of Stellar Blade Developer Says It Needs to Use AI to Compete With Overwhelming Manpower of China and U.S. Studios

Stellar Blade manager and CEO of Shift Up Hyung-tae Kim has stated that without the usage of AI, developers successful smaller nations volition conflict to support up with studios successful places similar the U.S. and China.

As archetypal reported by GameMeca, and picked up by Automaton, Kim addressed attendees astatine South Korea's 2026 Economic Growth Strategy lawsuit and said that countries similar China person an overwhelming vantage owed to the sheer fig of unit it tin propulsion astatine video crippled development.

"We give astir 150 radical to a azygous game, but China puts successful betwixt 1,000 to 2,000. We deficiency the capableness to compete, some successful presumption of prime and measurement of content," Kim said (via instrumentality translation).

Using AI volition not effect successful occupation losses, Kim insisted, but alternatively marque employees much valuable, arsenic "one idiosyncratic tin execute the enactment of 100 people." This week, Shift Up talented its 300 unit an Apple Watch, AirPods Max, and a $3,400 currency bonus. A sequel, Stellar Blade 2, is successful development, arsenic good arsenic Project Spirits, to beryllium published by Level Infinite.

AI is, of course, a huge taxable successful gaming close now, with galore companies forced to contented statements confirming they person not utilized AI to make games oregon the selling materials that beforehand them. Just yesterday, January 12, we reported that Nintendo denied allegations that it utilized AI-generated imagery to advertise its caller My Mario children's artifact range, portion past month, a Fortnite creator was forced to support their enactment aft fans suggested galore images recovered wrong the game's caller play were AI-generated, including a suspicious-looking poster showing a quality successful a hammock with an unusual fig of toes.

In November 17, Assassin's Creed steadfast Ubisoft had to region an representation recovered wrong Anno 117: Pax Romana that contained AI-generated elements aft fans complained, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 players complained astir suspected AI-generated images they had recovered crossed the game, pursuing a inclination of AI-Ghibli images from earlier this year. The Alters developer, 11 Bit Studios, and Jurassic World Evolution 3 developer, Frontier Developments, person likewise faced instrumentality backlash.

More recently, Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian was embroiled successful a genAI contention of its ain pursuing the announcement of its adjacent game, Divinity. It's since pullled backmost somewhat from utilizing the tech.

Opinion connected the usage of AI successful games continues to disagreement studios and their fans, with immoderate vehemently against its use, portion others assertion it's an inevitable portion of the future. Rockstar co-founder and erstwhile Grand Theft Auto writer Dan Houser precocious likened AI to huffy cattle disease, but the CEO of Genvid — the institution down choose-your-own-adventure interactive bid similar Silent Hill Ascension — has claimed "consumers mostly bash not care" astir generative AI successful games, and stated that: "Gen Z loves AI slop."

EA CEO Andrew Wilson has said AI is "the precise halfway of our business," and Square Enix precocious implemented wide layoffs and reorganized, saying it needed to beryllium "aggressive successful applying AI." Dead Space creator Glen Schofield besides precocious elaborate his plans to “fix” the manufacture successful portion via the usage of generative AI successful crippled development, and erstwhile God of War dev Meghan Morgan Juinio said: "... if we don’t clasp [AI], I deliberation we’re selling ourselves short.”

Vikki Blake is simply a newsman for IGN, arsenic good arsenic a critic, columnist, and advisor with 15+ years acquisition moving with immoderate of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's besides a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her astatine BlueSky.