Videogame Stocks Slide On Google's AI Model That Turns Prompts Into Playable Worlds (reuters.com) 35
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Shares of videogame companies fell sharply in afternoon trading on Friday after Alphabet's Google rolled out its artificial intelligence model capable of creating interactive digital worlds with simple prompts. Shares of "Grand Theft Auto" maker Take-Two Interactive fell 10%, online gaming platform Roblox was down over 12%, while videogame engine maker Unity Software dropped 21%.
The AI model, dubbed "Project Genie," allows users to simulate a real-world environment through prompts with text or uploaded images, potentially disrupting how video games have been made for over a decade and forcing developers to adapt to the fast-moving technology. "Unlike explorable experiences in static 3D snapshots, Genie 3 generates the path ahead in real time as you move and interact with the world. It simulates physics and interactions for dynamic worlds," Google said in a blog post on Thursday.
Traditionally, most videogames are built inside a game engine such as Epic Games' "Unreal Engine" or the "Unity Engine", which handles complex processes like in-game gravity, lighting, sound, and object or character physics. "We'll see a real transformation in development and output once AI-based design starts creating experiences that are uniquely its own, rather than just accelerating traditional workflows," said Joost van Dreunen, games professor at NYU's Stern School of Business. Project Genie also has the potential to shorten lengthy development cycles and reduce costs, as some premium titles take around five to seven years and hundreds of millions of dollars to create.
The AI model, dubbed "Project Genie," allows users to simulate a real-world environment through prompts with text or uploaded images, potentially disrupting how video games have been made for over a decade and forcing developers to adapt to the fast-moving technology. "Unlike explorable experiences in static 3D snapshots, Genie 3 generates the path ahead in real time as you move and interact with the world. It simulates physics and interactions for dynamic worlds," Google said in a blog post on Thursday.
Traditionally, most videogames are built inside a game engine such as Epic Games' "Unreal Engine" or the "Unity Engine", which handles complex processes like in-game gravity, lighting, sound, and object or character physics. "We'll see a real transformation in development and output once AI-based design starts creating experiences that are uniquely its own, rather than just accelerating traditional workflows," said Joost van Dreunen, games professor at NYU's Stern School of Business. Project Genie also has the potential to shorten lengthy development cycles and reduce costs, as some premium titles take around five to seven years and hundreds of millions of dollars to create.
Heck ... (Score:1)
... I'd be happy with generated movies or series. No playability required.
So many good books I'd love to see dramatized!
Re: (Score:2)
Really? Given how many movies based on books end up being so much less rich than the book, my tendency is to think some prompt-based thing will make good books really into a really boring videos. The mind's eye is a pretty skilled cinematographer.
Re: (Score:2)
The mind's eye is a pretty skilled cinematographer.
I have aphantasia, you insensitive clod!
No, really. I do. :(
Re: (Score:2)
Quick, take advantage (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Has anyone seen a version of "project genie" where the character goes in a wide circle and ends up where he was to begin with? I very much doubt they can do that, and without that its never going to be a playable game. Maybe a movie or a commercial.
Now, it does appear that it can mimic enviroments from a camera for a short period of time, so if you were to build a basic 3d world with unity and pipe that into project genie you might have a game where it simulates pretty grass and clouds and trees, or a run d
Re: Quick, take advantage (Score:2)
Like how half-life begins and ends in a tram?
Re: (Score:2)
No, but at least its got persistence of vision, something these models have yet to acquire.
Title is misleading (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
AI is a lie...so many of you say
So far it has proven itself to be nothing else. This Google lie will reveal itself at some point.
Coming to a game near you (Score:1)
AI slop now making your games even better! Joy!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
A lot of games are already slop. Those will die off as AI slop replaces them.
Open world of 3D models with basic physics? They could take existing stuff and just have the AI tweak the engines involved. Making 3D maps of loosely related objects with loosely attached object properties to simulate doesn't sound like it's replacing Zelda to me. But the same old 1st person shooter with a generated plot, voice over, and things to shoot... they could do all the bargain bin clearance games... not many years before
'Make Half-Life 3' (Score:2)
Let me try that.
Re: (Score:2)
Tried that. It got me Doom.
I guess AIs do have some sort of humor.
Cue the lawsuits (Score:2)
Plaintiffs: The gaming companies
Defendant: Google
Has a hornet's next been kicked?
Re: (Score:2)
Another case of investors not knowing what it is (Score:2)
I looked at this in more detail and honestly this looks like something that would be great for making a proof of concept to sell the idea of a game pretty quickly, but it's far from being able to make a full game.
Example: "Make a proof of concept for an open-world single player game with the art style of League of Legends" then make a bunch of iterations on that with "art style of film noir" or "art style of high defin
A video game map is not a video game. (Score:2)
so wander arounbd for 10 minutes (Score:2)
Replace games (Score:4, Insightful)
I feel like playing with AI is going to be something that replaces games, not something that generates them.
So stupid... (Score:1)
Re: So stupid... (Score:2)
The outrage isn't sustainable. I suspect the only games *not* using AI generated assets within the next 3 years will be boutique games where the main selling point is that everything is human-made. It'll be like hand-crafted furniture is today, expensive and decidedly not mainstream.
Re: (Score:2)
I suspect game makers will indeed do that, and will see their profits flat-line as gamers avoid their slop because it's slop, regardless of what the reason is.
Re: (Score:2)
let's play global thermonuclear war (Score:2)
let's play global thermonuclear war
Does it really simulate? Or just look like it? (Score:1)
This looks like interesting stuff. I recall playing around with Microsoft's similar, but more limited, demo that recreated Quake. I imagine that hands-on this probably behaves basically the same way.
Without knowing how they actually implemented this, I'm curious at how honest they are when they say it "simulates physics and interactions". The math behind rigid body, IK, collisions, cloth deformations, etc., etc. doesn't really seem to be in the wheelhouse of a generative lea
Re: (Score:1)
Oh, and I totally doubt it would do any physics at all when you're not looking at it. While I understand it 'remembers' previous views and frames, I totally doubt i
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
ahm... (Score:2)
Time to severely limit speculation (Score:2)
Because that is as stupidly irrational as it gets. All that stock-market speculation does is damage.