Google Cloud games division head Jack Buser wants everyone to stop pretending AI is some future shock and admit that it is already here.
Speaking to MobileGamer.Biz, Buser claimed the industry has already embraced AI-powered tools, saying Google’s survey found near-universal uptake around Gamescom.
Buser said: “When there are technological revolutions in this industry, oftentimes you have a reaction from the player that’s like, hold on, I know what my favourite games are, and I’m worried about change.”
Buser said players are worried about generative AI-powered tools, fearing they may not like future games. However, he suggested that players are already consuming AI-made work without clocking it.
“I think what players don’t realise is that their favourite games right now were already built with AI. Those games have shipped. We did a survey around Gamescom last summer with studios all over the world. Roughly nine out of ten game developers told us, ” Yeah, we’re using it. Now you’ll see other surveys from other organisations that have more around like 40-50 per cent. And you might ask yourself, well, that’s still a large number. It’s still almost half of the developers out there. What’s the gap?” Buser said.
He said that the gap was basically the developer’s willingness to tell you whether the fact of the matter is that it’s being used.
Buser pointed at Capcom as a “big user” of Google Cloud’s AI tools, which is a brave name-drop given Capcom has been fairly open with investors.
Capcom has already said it will use GenAI to improve development efficiency, calling out graphics, sound, and programming, while drawing a line at final in-game assets.
Buser said: “What they’re doing is they’re using Nano Banana and Gemini to rapidly generate just countless ideas, and then they’re talking to Gemini to go through those ideas and curate them… and of these thousands of things, here are the ones that are probably most interesting to you as the art director. And then the art director takes that and then gets the art team going on these items, the AI is already pre-filtered and pre-selected, probably really good looking pebbles on the side of the road – and then all their creative energy gets focused towards the high value creative task, the main character, the big enemies, the main scene, objects, that kind of stuff.”
He tried to wave away claims of lower adoption numbers by saying studios are not telling the truth, while taking aim at surveys showing less than his claimed nine out of 10.
