One of the most talked-about issues in gaming in recent times has been around the rise of artificial intelligence systems and how they may be further incorporated into gaming in the future. Larian Studios boss Swen Vincke has now weighed in with his thoughts. Speaking to Eurogamer, Vincke said Larian does not see AI as a “replacement for developers.”

But deployed the right way, AI could allow Larian to “do more stuff.” As an example, if an NPC in a game had just one line of dialogue, that might be a place for AI to step in to do the work.

“There’s not a lot of creative accomplishment to be had by putting the camera on a singular NPC that only has a couple of notes–I’m very happy for AI to handle that,” he said. “We’re not going to do that for the very complicated scenes because there, the artistry is going to shine through. So there’s uses for it.”

AI could also play a role in augmenting “reactivity and dialogues” in games if the AI systems become more advanced over time.

“So you would, for instance, have writers and a scripter and cinematic designer, and everybody that goes with it, you would have them make their entire scene, and then you would augment some reactivity into it, to things that you’ve done before,” he said. “So it is about, for instance, let’s say it’s a guard talking about a murderer that is free in the city. We don’t have to foresee all of the possible people that you could have killed in the NPC[‘s lines], but they could be talking about that, right? And say if it’s like multiple people, they could say, ‘Oh my god!’ and it’s like, literally a serial killer.”

Vincke said he thinks players would respond positively to something like this. Overall, Vincke said he sees AI as an “additional tool” that a developer can use to layer on top of other things in a game. Larian is “doing experiments with that” currently, he said. But it’s still early days, and any experimentations in this department are “far from being usable.”

Larian is not alone in embracing the possibilities that AI could afford game developers. For its part, Electronic Arts is a big believer in AI and recently found that about 60% of its game development processes could be positively impacted by using AI. Microsoft is heavily invested in AI and has said AI will be baked into every product it makes going forward, including Xbox.

EA and Microsoft both implemented mass layoffs around the same time of announcing plans to push further into AI. The possibility that AI could replace human jobs is a major concern raised by many, and EA has been up front in saying AI will likely lead to significant job losses.

Larian is not making any Baldur’s Gate 3 DLC or Baldur’s Gate 4. Instead, the company is working on a totally new, non-D&D game that Vincke is excited to eventually talk about.

“Still familiar enough, but different. I mean, like: tone, style, way of doing it, are for us certainly new. And I think very appealing,” Vincke told Eurogamer. “I would love to talk about it already because I’m excited about it but I can’t say more. But it’s new in that sense.”

Development on the The Witcher 4–codenamed Polaris–has taken another step forward, as CD Projekt Red revealed that it has 403 employees working on it. Earlier this year, joint CEO Adam Badowski had mentioned how he was aiming to have “around 400” people on the next mainline Witcher game. This is roughly two-thirds of CDPR’s workforce, and according to joint CEO Michal Nowakowski (via VGC), this will allow the production phase of the game to begin later this year.

Early in the development of Polaris, Nowakowski mentioned how the game had just 17 people working on it as most of the staff had been reorganized and sent to work on other projects following the release of Cyberpunk 2077’s Phantom Liberty expansion. Cyberpunk 2077 still has 17 people providing support, while other projects like Orion, Sirius, and Hadar have 47, 37, and 20 people working on them, respectively. As of February 29, 2024, CDPR has 627 developers assigned to several games, services, and other projects.

Polaris is the fourth main Witcher game and will be the start of a new trilogy in the series. The first Witcher game is also getting a remake and CDPR is aiming to modernize it while also removing some of its more dated elements. During the development of Phantom Liberty, CDPR implemented an organizational overhaul. The company has aimed to create more open lines of communication and set up flexible teams that can quickly respond to any issues during the production of a game.

Certain Affinity, an independent game developer known for assisting on mega-franchises like Call of Duty and Halo, has laid off a significant number of workers in just the latest example of mass layoffs in the video game industry.

In a blog post, CEO Max Hoberman said the video game industry has faced “unprecedented challenges” in the past 12 months, and Certain Affinity is not immune to those issues. In response, Certain Affinity is laying off 25 of its US-based workers. The majority of those impacted are on teams handling business operations, Hoberman said. Certain Affinity’s website said the company has about 250 employees, so 25 layoffs works out to around 10% of the company. That percentage might not be accurate given that Certain Affinity also operates in Canada, nor do we know when the website might have been updated last.

This was Certain Affinity’s first mass layoff in the company’s 17-year history. Explaining the cuts, Hoberman said the “most significant” element was the “industry-wide slowdown” of funding for the kind of work that Certain Affinity does, which includes co-development. Additionally, third-party investors are showing “reluctance” to fund games and game companies, and this has made it “exceptionally difficult to sign new work or secure other forms of funding.”

Affected staffers at Certain Affinity are getting severance pay and continuing benefits. Additionally, those being let go are having their vested stock awards made “portable” so affected staffers are still able to reap the rewards down the road.

“We have built an amazing culture where we all come together to support one another in times of need. We ask for your understanding and patience while we navigate this unprecedented event. Thank you,” Hoberman said.

Based in Austin, Texas, Certain Affinity has worked on huge franchises like Call of Duty, Halo, Mafia, Doom, World of Tanks, Hogwarts Legacy, and more. The studio has made its own games, too, including Age of Booty and Crimson Alliance. Looking ahead, Certain Affinity is making its own original FPS game, currently in the works under the codename Project Loro.

The company’s founder and CEO, Hoberman, was the multiplayer/online lead for the Halo series at Bungie before leaving to start Certain Affinity in 2006.

2024 has been another tough year for game developers, with a reported 8,000+ layoffs in the video game industry so far this year. Some are expecting the run of mass layoffs to continue. For more, check out GameSpot’s piece on video game industry layoffs and how we got here.