Masahiro Sakurai says as AI games dominate Steam, developers who are truly creative will become even more important

Masahiro Sakurai has spoken about the increased importance of creativity in an industry that’s becoming increasingly affected by AI.

In an interview with Denfaminico Gamer, the Smash Bros and Kirby creator was asked how he felt about the fact that when he launched his Game Designers Award in 2010 there were around 275 games added to Steam that year, but now the figure is closer to 19,000 titles per year in Japan.

Sakurai replied that he thinks the number will increase even higher in the future because of the growth of the use of AI, resulting in numerous clones and copycat releases.

“I think 19,000 titles is an impressive number, but I think that figure will grow even further from here on out,” he said (via machine translation). “I’m certain of it, because AI will drive that increase. However, I think most of those titles will be commercially unviable. There will simply be too many to keep track of, or even understand.

“When it comes to AI-generated games, or those churned out through mass production with little care, I think most of them will simply replicate systems that we’ve already seen in other games. There are already plenty of examples of this now.”

“A little while ago, there was a game called Librarian. I’m not sure if it was an original idea, but I think its Japanese title was The Librarian’s Job,” he added, referring to Librarian: Tidy Up the Arcane Library.

“It’s a game set in a world where magic exists, and all the books in a library have been knocked over, so you have to put them back in order. The basic gameplay system is pretty simple, isn’t it? So, as you might expect, a whole bunch of imitators appeared.

“There were suddenly all sorts of games based on similar ideas – “the supermarket has been turned upside down, so let’s put all the products back in order”, “let’s put the screws back where they belong”, or “let’s find a needle in a haystack”. They’re also part of the puzzle-game genre, but these kinds of imitations should be incredibly easy for AI to produce.”

Human creativity “will become increasingly important”, Sakurai says

Sakurai went on to suggest that AI becomes even more versatile at replicating game concepts, it will be increasingly important for developers to come up with entirely new ideas, because this is something AI isn’t necessarily capable of.

“Suppose AI becomes capable of creating all sorts of games,” he explained. “It might be able to study the atmosphere of works by Fumito Ueda, for example, and produce something similar to Ico or Shadow of the Colossus. We may well see that happen in the future.

“However, AI wouldn’t be able to create the kind of game that Ueda himself plans to make in the future. Only he can decide what kind of artistic direction his future work will take. I think that’s precisely what constitutes the ‘originality’ that only humans can possess.

“Essentially, AI draws on ‘what has been created so far’, but it can’t draw ‘on things that have never existed before’. And I think you could say something similar about all sorts of creative works, not just those produced by AI.

“I wouldn’t necessarily go so far as to call these people ‘pioneers’, but those who venture into uncharted territory – people who understand and can create something with their own unique style – will become increasingly important. I believe that’s especially true in an era of so much mass-produced, low-quality content.”