When No Man’s Sky was just coming out, one of the big selling points was how it used advanced algorithms to produce more worlds than any one player could ever hope to visit, even in a billion lifetimes. Ten years later, some companies are promising that distinct, new technologies like large language models and generative AI will be the basis for magnifying game developers’ work in equally unimaginable ways. Sean Murray, the managing director at Hello Games, said he’s in no rush to join that race.
“I remember when we were coming back from COVID, and we were all trying to figure out, like, how do we run a studio and a games development company?” he told Kotaku in a recent interview marking No Man’s Sky‘s 10th anniversary. “How do we get people to work together again? Are they going to be in offices? Are they going to be hybrid? All that kind of thing. And we had a lot of discussions about it. And I remember saying, ‘Let’s just hold back, stay working from home, and let everyone else f*uck it up.’”
Murray said his plan as head of Hello Games is to take a similar approach to the new whirlwind of takes, claims, and fears around generative AI. Before cofounding Hello Games, Sean Murray worked at Criterion Games. It was owned by Electronic Arts when Murray was lead programmer on the 2006 cult-hit FPS Black. EA was reportedly banking on a windfall from new AI technologies to help offset part of its debt from a $55 billion sale to Saudi Arabia.
“Like I’m like reading about, you know, I don’t know, EA’s just been bought by the Saudis,” he said. “And they’re like, don’t worry, we’re going to save billions because we’re going to all use AI. Right? And I sort of sit there and think, cool, good luck. You know, let’s see how that works out. I will watch from afar.”
Murray said his plan is to wait to see what becomes the industry norm over the next few years, just as he waited to see what office work after COVID would look like. Just a few months ago, big blockbusters from the Tomb Raider remake to the new Crazy Taxi came under fire from fans for disclosing some amount of generative AI was used during development. At the same time, players are worried about slop making it into finished games, and developers have struggled to articulate the clear benefits from incorporating the technology into their processes.
Murray’s prediction is that AI will not fundamentally change the underlying struggle of making good games. “I think making video games is really hard and I think people are going to learn that it‘s still really hard and the hard things are still hard, of making a game feel really nice to play.” He continued, “My day to day role is let’s just enjoy making games the way we’ve always made games. And like that’s still working for us and we still enjoy it.”
