We asked mobilegamer.biz readers for their 2023 predictions to kick off the year. And plenty of familiar faces offered their thoughts on the hot topic of the moment: AI.
Elsewhere in this week’s run of 2023 prediction posts, we’ve covered the stormy economy, more M&A, cross-platform development, evolving monetisation models plus what’ll happen in web3, advertising, hypercasual and other areas like sexist ads, AR, TikTok, live ops and more.
Phantom Gamelabs CEO Sonja Ängeslevä:
Generative AI will be the ground-shaking trend in 2023. It will not only be about how designers and developers use Midjourney in ideation and concept design or how ChatGPT generates texts for various uses. In 2023, it will be more about how to integrate AI generated content into the game development processes and how to replace certain roles with AI while keeping copyright and other legal issues in mind.
Machine learning, generative AI and data-supported development will all advance major changes in game development processes. Various data tools will change the way how games are being developed, how content and offers are targeted and game play experience personalised for players.
Fingersoft COO Ville Rauma:
I’m not sure if I should call it new, but AI/ML tools have been getting more and more traction this year and I think that trend will continue in a big way. As a creative industry professional I see AI/ML as giving us more tools to our creative toolset which has always meant more creativity, more variety and better quality.
Trailmix CEO and co-founder Carolin Krenzer:
Lots of investment in the AI space – I am assuming that everyone will mention AI in some way or form!
Exient chief publishing officer Julian Jones:
I think we’ll see much more on AI generative art, and the first games to be deployed using it. I have concerns that AI generative art could be the next web3 trend to enter the hype cycle. There are very interesting developments in AI generated art and some of the output is good.
There’s plenty of issues relating to the training of the AI that need examining before it’s used in commercial games. The systems will become more sophisticated, the output more useful – supporting layering, animation and more – and also have auditable logs to protect against or prove cases of AI plagiarism.
Dirtybit chief marketing officer Anette Staloy:
I predict that generative AI will enter workflows at full speed in 2023.
Song of Bloom developer Philipp Stollenmayer:
Like it or not, but AI will become a part of game development. It is now at a stage where it produces assets that are just fine enough to use, but still have those tiny errors that reveal their non-human origin. And these details are somehow the counterpart of the human tiny errors, like the imperfections of stop motion.
As long as those tiny imperfections exist, they could build up a new aesthetic, and that will be a great hook for any artsy game in 2023.
Exient product director Christa Agius:
I think we’ll see much more AI supported input in games, but not just limited to art. I’m keen to see how tools from companies like OpenAI will develop. Will tools like this be used to speed up or automate the writing of in-game content? Who knows…
I also think that mobile game publishers will tap into viral trends on popular social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram as a means of acquiring both new users and user generated content, more than ever before.
Black Block Games cofounder Robin Squire:
AI will enslave us all and procedurally generate everything from my books, to my art and what I’m having for dinner. Maybe 2023 will bring our first game studio that procedurally generates 75% of their content?
I used OpenAI’s ChatGPT to generate a game description for an MMORPG set in a massive open world where grains of rice are sentient. Turns out this game is called Rice Realms and features Rice Dragons. It sounded alright.
