Netflix to focus on Generative AI for video game development

Netflix is now pushing for AAA video game development via Generative AI. The announcement comes from the new VP of GenAI for Games, Mike Verdu through his LinkedIn post. This comes after the closure of Team Blue, which included former Halo creative lead Joseph Staten and other renowned names, developing the first AAA game by Netflix.

In a lengthy post, Verdu tried to justify the use of GenAI, claiming this will help speed up game development. “This transformational technology will accelerate the velocity of development and unlock truly novel game experiences that will surprise, delight, and inspire players,” Verdu wrote in his post.

“AI will enable big game teams to move much faster, and will also put an almost unimaginable collection of new capabilities in the hands of developers in smaller game teams,” he further added while promising a lot of big things.

Also Read:Netflix shuts down its AAA game development studio ‘Team Blue’

Verdu further revealed that the ongoing changes in Netflix Games in the last few months were ‘actually a planned transition’, while posting an AI-generated image that had nothing to do with the entire post.

Verdu aims to pump out games every month

Moving further, Verdu claims this brings the same excitement for him as in the 90s when companies like Nintendo were bringing out games on a monthly basis. He believes that with the potential from AI, the same can be done now, bringing ‘mind-blowing surprises for players every few months’.

Sadly, people are not convinced at all, and for a good reason. While true that AI can actually help in certain areas to speed up workflow, Generative AI isn’t the solution, with several developers claiming it wastes much more time than a regular person writing the code.

A simple example is the game code itself. If done by a person, it can be resolved fairly quickly, as the person who wrote the code will know the issue. However, Generative AI feeds on data from various sources and the code generated takes much longer to correct/optimize. Furthermore, a person needs to be very precise to get the desired result.