A new study attempts to prove gamers aren't sold on AI, but I didn't think the effects were this significant
www.windowscentral.com
A new study from Game Oracle demonstrates the negative effects the use of AI can have on sales (and reputation). There's a lot to unpack here, but the main message is resounding: we're not yet ready for the future of gaming.

It’s a different story for the more established studios with an existing following and previous titles. Game Oracle found that the use of AI by these studios resulted in a significant 40% to 60% drop in sales.

That’s a huge difference. AI stigma seems to hit competent developers with a lot to lose the hardest, and I’m not sure that game studios are ready to accept it.

  • SootySootySoot [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
    9·
    1 day ago

    Game Oracle performed a sensitivity analysis to account for unmeasured factors like marketing costs, raw talent, and pure luck.

    It was discovered that inexperienced developers with no marketing budget, who likely turned to AI simply because of a lack of other resources, saw hardly any negative impact on sales despite the AI disclosure. These games were almost certainly going to struggle even without the use of AI.

    …

    It’s a different story for the more established studios with an existing following and previous titles. Game Oracle found that the use of AI by these studios resulted in a significant 40% to 60% drop in sales.

    Obviously there’s no way to objectively measure ‘effort’ that went into a game. But there is as good an implication as you can get here - that even established studios that are likely to be putting in some comparable amount of ‘effort’ are selling worse when they utilise AI.

    • Carl [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      8·
      1 day ago

      It’s interesting to me that the effect seems more pronounced on more established studios. Maybe it’s because higher profile games generate larger backlashes, or maybe it’s because smaller devs have lower expectations and a more forgiving audience.