There are several ways generative AI continues to slink its way around the industry, bringing furious debate wherever it’s spotted. Masahiro Sakurai, the legendary developer who created the Kirby and Super Smash Bros series, has weighed in on his concerns regarding the tech and what he sees as the vulnerable areas.
He did this in a chat with the Japanese outlet Denfaminico Gamer, which has since been machine-translated by Google, DeepL, and so on. After spending decades making games, he considers the current problems to be quite layered. For a start, he points out that originality doesn’t tend to sell like it used to. It’s harder to stand out, and harder still to get people on board.
Thus, it can be more tempting to fall back on established genres and ideas, which is where, to him, AI becomes insidious. The technology only ever draws on what’s come before. It can’t create something new, but if your game uses mechanics that are well-trodden, then you’re a prime target for a gen-AI lookalike.
He points towards Librarian, released this past April, as a prime example – you simply tidy up an old library. That kind of simplicity is ripe for AI because the base elements are easy to comprehend and retool.
This is becoming an increasingly large problem. Before now, you had asset flips and reskins that let devs copy trendy games for a quick buck, and AI and vibe-coding have only exacerbated the practice. Increasing numbers of studios are finding their greatest competition is bandwagon jumpers.
Sakurai doesn’t differentiate between indie and larger studios in his observations, and the one saving grace is, he believes most of these projects will die in obscurity. That’s a barrier devs have contended with on Steam in particular for many, many moons. It’s hard to breakout when you’re one of dozens of new releases on any given day.
There aren’t any easy solutions, except to be wary and keep your money and attention for human-made games. Who knows, you might even find the next Kirby lying in wait.