UPDATE: The original interview was conducted by Itmedia Business Online, NOT Yahoo Japan as originally reported. Thanks to Mill Yoshi for the correction on Twitter / X.
Recently, Sakurai was interviewed by ITmedia Business Online and in this interview he commented on the use of Generative AI in video game production. Since that interview went live, we’ve seen several comments and translations that have taken his words out of context and misunderstood what was being stated. As such, we wanted to provide our own translation of both the question asked and answer given so that we can supply full context for his statement.
This translation was handled by PushDustIn and reviewed by profesisonal translators Brando and Kody for accuracy.
Question: Game development is becoming increasingly large scale, specialized, and segmented. At the same time, the market for indie games made by individuals or small teams is also expanding. What is your perspective on the future of the gaming market?”
Sakurai’s Answer: “To be honest, it’s hard to see what the future holds. I think we’ve reached a point where creating large scale games like we do now is too time consuming and unsustainable. I feel that things can’t continue this way, but the only effective solution, I can think of at the moment is generative AI. I believe we are at a stage where we must change our methods, such as by using generative AI to improve work efficiency. It seems that only companies that can adapt well to these changes will survive in the coming era.”
Source Gaming Editor Commentary: We think it’s important not to extrapolate any additional meaning to Sakurai’s thoughts on Gen AI as, based on his answer, he’s seemingly just using it as an example. He doesn’t say he uses it himself and he doesn’t give any examples on how to use it. He gives a vague ‘improves productivity’ response. He also doesn’t touch upon the indie part of that question, instead addressing it later on in the interview, with zero talk of AI.
