Epic Games Embraces AI Development as Gaming Industry Faces Growing Concerns Over Its Future

The video game industry is in a period of change, with increasing development costs, expensive consoles, and long development cycles creating problems for both the developers and the players. These challenges are also pushing companies to explore new technologies like AI to streamline development, reduce workloads, and find new ways to bring their games to market.

Another key part of this transition is also emerging in artificial intelligence, giving people access to tools that would have previously required programming and development skills to build. Some are concerned about AI’s effect on the creative industries, while others think it could open up game development to a wider audience. 

Epic Games is fully committed to AI, with AI assisting with coding, artwork, and other development tasks, while still allowing its developers to determine the creative direction.

The announcement has been met with mixed reactions, especially as generative artificial intelligence is able to generate material based on existing artwork and other creative works. Artists worry their work could be used without permission and devalue their skills. These concerns become even more complicated when companies like Disney are involved, especially as Epic Games continues to work with them.

The relationship between AI and copyrighted content remains a complex issue. Disney’s intellectual property is used to create content using AI tools; it’s unclear what assets can be used and whether they’ve been approved by the company. Fan art presents another problem because it can be a combination of someone else's intellectual property and the original creative work of the artist. 

But with AI-assisted programming, the debate looks different. Unreal Engine is a very popular choice in the industry, and you could miss out on games made with it if you avoided every game connected to the company, Epic Games. The key distinction is that using AI to produce art has different implications than using it to assist coding. If developers are still involved in reviewing the results, AI might help them in building features, investigating technical problems, and completing some tasks faster.

Experiments on older wrestling games demonstrate how these tools can help people accomplish tasks without a traditional programming background. AI was used to color the original Game Boy version of WWF Superstars, converting it into a Game Boy Color version. WWF Superstars 2 was another similar project that turned out to be promising as well, adding full color graphics to the original game. 

The experiments eventually went beyond graphics.

Both games had relatively basic move sets and lacked finishing moves, leading to an attempt to add them to WWF Superstars. That project didn't go well, as the original game didn't have enough animation frames, and so the AI had to try and create more animations. WWF Superstars 2 had more animation frames, though, so the experiment might have better results.

The second project managed to incorporate finishing moves like a tombstone piledriver, a powerbomb, and Hogan's running leg drop. It also meant charting new button combinations and laying down conditions for when the moves could be used. While the project has not been released as an IPS patch, the results show how AI can help people add features missing from the original games.

These experiments also refute the idea that AI-assisted development will inevitably result in unfinished games that nobody knows how to fix. When a game has a bug, developers may provide an AI system with screenshots, video footage, and details of the conditions when the problem occurred.

The system could then look at the relevant code and attempt to come up with a solution. This method may be faster than traditional debugging, but it’s a potential way to help developers rather than replace them. This approach could also help teams identify issues earlier in development, potentially saving time and allowing developers to focus on improving other aspects of their games.

There are certainly AI-generated projects that deserve criticism because they receive little testing or lack proper quality control. However, that does not mean every project using AI will have the same problems. When developers carefully test their work and correct mistakes, these tools could help speed up production.

And while AI learns from existing resources, people can also learn from other work, from teachers, and from online resources. This comparison does not resolve concerns about copyright, but it shows why different applications of AI deserve separate consideration.

Modern game engines offer another useful comparison.

Previously developers had to build many systems for specific games, but today's engines provide them with common tools that allow studios to work more efficiently. With these platforms, teams spend less time creating from scratch and more time growing their projects. AI could be just another development tool, but its effectiveness will depend on how carefully people use it and test the results.

Also there are concerns that major companies in gaming, film, and music could eventually push for restrictions on public access to sophisticated artificial intelligence systems. And those efforts could revolve around copyright protection, source code, and intellectual property. If access is further restricted, the average user will be prevented from using some of the most powerful tools, and big tech companies and well-established developers will keep their advantages. 

For now, it appears that AI will remain a part of game development as more companies seek ways to speed up production. Its increasing popularity brings up valid concerns about intellectual property, copyright, and game quality, but to write off every implementation as harmful is to ignore its potential positive effect.

The industry is moving fast, and things like AI, emulation, hacking, and games on new platforms could change the landscape even more. Whether developers and companies embrace these changes in a way that makes AI a useful addition to game development or a problem that’s difficult to solve remains to be seen.