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[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Kiryu, who was appointed as the Final Fantasy firm’s new boss in June 2023, made the comments in its traditional New Year’s Letter from the president.

In the letter, the exec explains the new initiatives he has put in place since his appointment, including vetting games in development and accelerating a plan to provide more resources to its internal teams.

Kiryu also said Square Enix was expanding knowledge sharing with the goal of standardizing its processes and “enhancing our efficiency”, as well as encouraging closer collaboration between its content and publishing teams.

Perhaps the most eye-catching section of the letter, however, mentions the president’s ambitions in the area of artificial intelligence.

“We also intend to be aggressive in applying AI and other cutting-edge technologies to both our content development and our publishing functions,” the exec wrote.

“In the short term, our goal will be to enhance our development productivity and achieve greater sophistication in our marketing efforts. In the longer term, we hope to leverage those technologies to create new forms of content for consumers, as we believe that technological innovation represents business opportunities.”

Earlier in the letter, Kiryu spoke about the impact of generative AIs such as ChatGPT, which he noted had quickly expanded to cover images, video, and music.

“I believe that generative AI has the potential not only to reshape what we create, but also to fundamentally change the processes by which we create, including programming,” he said.

The president did not share any specifics about how it would use AI for game development, but Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s co-director has previously discussed how it built an AI tool for character facial animation and lip-syncing.

Square Enix’s previous president, Yosuke Matsuda, used last year’s letter to express the company’s commitment to blockchain technology. In the latest letter, Kiryu said the company would continue to support these efforts.

In November, Xbox announced a multi-year deal with Inworld to build AI dialogue and narrative tools at scale, which it said would enable it to deliver “an accessible, responsibly designed multi-platform AI toolset to assist and empower creators in dialogue, story & quest design.”

Xbox’s chief financial officer, Tim Stuart later elaborated at the Wells Fargo TMT Summit: “On the developer side, you think about the millions and millions of dollars in a game spent on localisation, script, how you think about players moving from point A to point B and you have non-player characters have dialogue.

“AI can take care of all that. You now say, ‘I need the player to get from A to B’ and instead of having to write thousands of lines of scripting or code, you just have the AI get you from A to B. Things like localisation and putting things in new languages.

“When we think about game testing, a million AI bots can run through a level of Minecraft and find where players get stuck, where they spend money, how they think about the level. So, this is—pun intended—game-changing for the developer.”

Square Enix’s president says it will be ‘aggressive in applying’ AI | VGC

“In the short term, our goal will be to enhance our development productivity”…

www.videogameschronicle.com

 

[Wildebeest]

I don't care, but I imagine Square fans are the type who do, a lot.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Welp, every company in gaming's going to be looking towards AI. I just hope they stay ethical about it because, well, some are already screwing up (how do you get busted using AI badly for promotional art of indie games ?)

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

Needed so games don't take 5-7 years to develop and over $300mil to make. Modern AAA development risk/reward ratio is out of sync.

 

[T4keD0wN]

Good to know they will be using AI, it will result in what an average person is capable of so at least the quality of most of their games should go up.
Alexa post happy Kiryu:

oops, wrong Kiryu, bad AI

 

[adamsapple]

If it helps avoid more Forspokens..

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Welp, every company in gaming's going to be looking towards AI. I just hope they stay ethical about it because, well, some are already screwing up (how do you get busted using AI badly for promotional art of indie games ?)

Wait, did I miss something recently? Did some high profile dev/publisher got caught using AI art in their promos?

 

[Kadve]

Didn't they say that about the NFT bandwagon recently too?

 

[Chukhopops]

Didn't they say that about the NFT bandwagon recently too?

Last year yeah but I think it was the former president?

The last time they used AI was to upscale the backgrounds in the Crono Cross “”remaster”” so hopefully they understand AI better today.

 

[Cert.in.Death]

Based on the appearance of their NPC character models, I was already impressed that AI had been hard at work on their games for years....

 

[TheInfamousKira]

Like every mic drop news update, the potential here is gonna be strongly determined by *how* they intend to implement it.

Voice over work or dialogue? Please no.

NPC chatter or environment crafting? Sure.

 

[Paulistano]

And I thought their games quality could not become worse.

 

[Hudo]

ChatGPT could fix the clusterfuck of a storyline that is Kingdom Hearts.

 

[intbal]

 

[justiceiro]

1 day in the year and square already the first to say more stupid shit out of all the publisher so far.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

If it helps avoid more Forspokens..

forespoken used A.I.

 

[March Climber]

Wait, did I miss something recently? Did some high profile dev/publisher got caught using AI art in their promos?

Last one I remember doing this was Ubisoft.

Edit: According to this article they did it not only once, but twice.

Ubisoft's using hideous AI-generated Assassin's Creed art on social media, and everyone hates it

For the love of God, just pay some actual artists.

www.pcgamer.com

 

[hyperbertha]

And I hope it crashes and burns. After the direction ff16 went, I doubt this company will produce anything worthwhile anymore.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Last one I remember doing this was Ubisoft.

Edit: According to this article they did it not only once, but twice.

Ubisoft's using hideous AI-generated Assassin's Creed art on social media, and everyone hates it

For the love of God, just pay some actual artists.

www.pcgamer.com

Ah, Ubisoft. Of course it's them. Cheers!

 

[hinch7]

Makes sense for localisation. Just have everything translated and then checked over by a small team. Would save a lot of time and effort. Not sure on coding side of things...

 

[Comandr]

Honestly? Good. There are too many positives and not enough negatives. Games are taking more than half a decade and costing hundreds of millions of dollars to develop. That’s just unsustainable.

As just one example… Even if AI can translate one language into 26 other ones for localization using models of the original actor… that’s an immense time and cash savings. And we won’t have stuff like Yong Yea ruining an entire language.

There are a million Yakuza AI videos out there to illustrate how good this can sound - even from some dipshit nobody on YouTube making them- an entire production studio is going to have a lot more tools and talent to refine the product- and do it in a way so the portrayals are compensated. And this is exactly how it should be.

AI is just another tool. When motion capture really took off no one screamed and cried “but what about the poor animators?!” They’re still involved. They just don’t have to go through the absolutely gruesome process of hand animating an entire game.

AI isn’t replacing anyone. It will just reduce the tedium of the people already doing those jobs. Writers still need to touch up or rewrite AI stories for consistency, etc. Artists will still need to tweak and incorporate AI textures with others to maintain consistency etc. Programmers will be able to use AI to review and correct or streamline chunks of code.

Game programmers aren’t omnipotent- trust me. It’s just somebody at a computer trying to figure out how to get from A to B without breaking everything else they already coded. Programming is a skill, and this can be observed really easily in games like TOTK vs. Pokémon Sc/Vi.

One of these games is a programming marvel and has a ton of stuff going on and still manages to look great and perform well. The other is the fucking meme machine Pokémon Sc/Vi with its dogshit single digit performance in some DLC areas and hilariously poor graphics.

Having AI comb through the code and error check or clean it up would have been a total game changer. Literally. All studios should be aggressively incorporating AI into their development.

 

[Hudo]

And I hope it crashes and burns. After the direction ff16 went, I doubt this company will produce anything worthwhile anymore.

Let them finish DQ3 HD-2D and DQ12 before they crash and burn!

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

Honestly? Good. There are too many positives and not enough negatives. Games are taking more than half a decade and costing hundreds of millions of dollars to develop. That’s just unsustainable.

As just one example… Even if AI can translate one language into 26 other ones for localization using models of the original actor… that’s an immense time and cash savings. And we won’t have stuff like Yong Yea ruining an entire language.

There are a million Yakuza AI videos out there to illustrate how good this can sound - even from some dipshit nobody on YouTube making them- an entire production studio is going to have a lot more tools and talent to refine the product- and do it in a way so the portrayals are compensated. And this is exactly how it should be.

AI is just another tool. When motion capture really took off no one screamed and cried “but what about the poor animators?!” They’re still involved. They just don’t have to go through the absolutely gruesome process of hand animating an entire game.

AI isn’t replacing anyone. It will just reduce the tedium of the people already doing those jobs. Writers still need to touch up or rewrite AI stories for consistency, etc. Artists will still need to tweak and incorporate AI textures with others to maintain consistency etc. Programmers will be able to use AI to review and correct or streamline chunks of code.

Game programmers aren’t omnipotent- trust me. It’s just somebody at a computer trying to figure out how to get from A to B without breaking everything else they already coded. Programming is a skill, and this can be observed really easily in games like TOTK vs. Pokémon Sc/Vi.

One of these games is a programming marvel and has a ton of stuff going on and still manages to look great and perform well. The other is the fucking meme machine Pokémon Sc/Vi with its dogshit single digit performance in some DLC areas and hilariously poor graphics.

Having AI comb through the code and error check or clean it up would have been a total game changer. Literally. All studios should be aggressively incorporating AI into their development.

They will, it's inevitable and has already begun for some things like lip syncing.

Environment creation like this would do wonders for game dev. Perhaps around PS6 developers will be using it.

 

[balls of snow]

Remember nfts guys?
Yeah we dont either, ai is our lord and saviour now.
Clowns.

 

[Neon Xenon]

Back in March 2023, there were people quite excited when Takashi Kiryu was brought in to replace Yosuka Matsuda.
Wonder how they feel now after seeing this?

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

Remember nfts guys?
Yeah we dont either, ai is our lord and saviour now.
Clowns.

Back in March 2023, there were people quite excited when Takashi Kiryu was brought in to replace Yosuka Matsuda.
Wonder how they feel now after seeing this?

What's wrong with using advancing tech that the entire industry is adopting and will continue to adopt to make make big budget games more efficiently?

I would comfortably assume all mid and large publishers are exploring this.

He came into the role in June and we'll have a better idea of his initiatives by the end of this gen and going into the next one.

 

[Silver Wattle]

ChatGPT could fix the clusterfuck of a storyline that is Kingdom Hearts.

 

[Neon Xenon]

What's wrong with using advancing tech that the entire industry is adopting and will continue to adopt to make make big budget games more efficiently?

I would comfortably assume all mid and large publishers are exploring this.

He came into the role in June and we'll have a better idea of his initiatives by the end of this gen and going into the next one.

...There wasn't anything I said about AI, or AI being bad.
I said "Wonder how they feel after seeing this", because he mentioned "aggressively applying AI", and a president of a company (who people were excited for) even mentioning the use of it is going to make people paranoid. I think you know that.

 

[Flutta]

Well companies really want to save money as much as possible.

Aggressively = even if the quality of our products takes a hit.

 

[{insert code here}]

Yup. Massive reduction in costs, shorter cycles, smaller teams with defined visions, more risk taking. We could be on the verge of a new golden era of vidya games.

 

[proandrad]

If the games are good, no one will care.

 

[Valonquar]

It's like they have a history of presidents being completely tone deaf on the latest buzzwords.

 

[Zephyranthes]

AI is merely a tool; what matters is how it is used. I could see a benefit in using AI to automate or semi-automate tedious or repetitive game development tasks, or to help in debugging code.

 

[CityHunter1981]

Wow, it’s just like saying: expect more layoffs in the coming years.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

too much sake for their own sake.

 

[balls of snow]

What's wrong with using advancing tech that the entire industry is adopting and will continue to adopt to make make big budget games more efficiently?

I would comfortably assume all mid and large publishers are exploring this.

He came into the role in June and we'll have a better idea of his initiatives by the end of this gen and going into the next one.

It screams of chasing the hot new tech trend and jamming it into gaming development just cause they could. Soon there will be a mandate on all internal studios to incorporate ai no matter how menial the task just to achieve kpi targets.

 

[ManaByte]

Looking forward to all those people boycotting AI last month to swear off Square-Enix games this week. Those Tweets should be coming soon, right?

 

[YukiOnna]

It screams of chasing the hot new tech trend and jamming it into gaming development just cause they could. Soon there will be a mandate on all internal studios to incorporate ai no matter how menial the task just to achieve kpi targets.

Quite a big assumption. Research into and development is and should be common for tech companies, no? It's weird to see people treating AI like nft's when it's a legitimate technology and industry that's just going to progress. Already mentioned its use in creating tools for lip-sync and animation in Remake if you read the post.

 

[ManaByte]

It screams of chasing the hot new tech trend and jamming it into gaming development just cause they could. Soon there will be a mandate on all internal studios to incorporate ai no matter how menial the task just to achieve kpi targets.

A lot of companies are using LLMs in every day work now. The judge in the FTC trial told the lawyers to use it to compile their paperwork.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

Probably come up with better designs than Nomura.

 

[K2D]

They should still make use of artist and game testers. Chrono Cross and GTA Remasters are solid evidence of this.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

AI is coming. Even my company that isn't even a tech company announced on our intranet site were doing some AI stuff. I forget what it was all about as it's one of those memos you skim for 5 seconds and delete it. But if it improves the company and how to do stuff, I'm all for it.

 

[Torrent of Pork]

Translation.

Costs are too goddamned high, dev times are too goddamned long, customer pool is too goddamned small

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Translation.

Costs are too goddamned high, dev times are too goddamned long, customer pool is too goddamned small

Yup. When things get out of hand, thats when management looks into efficiencies.

No company is going to rock the boat with wide sweeping changes if it's not worth doing where it's too much of a hassle, costly or kills the current company production or performance.

The best example of companies doing giant changes isn't even AI related. If a car company is willing to relocate spending 5-10 years planning, rehiring people, building new factories and logistics where shipping a car is double the distance etc... it goes to show the savings must be so great long term it's worth doing. In other words, foreigners cost efficiencies and output outweigh the local talent.

Some goes for office work whether it AI game production or the company adding SAP modules to help process orders and inventory. If grassroots performance by a giant team of paper pushers like its 1980 is better, no company will bother spending shit loads of money and time adding an ERP system. But if it's better to add SAP to handle as much as possible, while hiring people to maintain and fix mistakes that occur during transactions, then it's SAP all day.

It's understandable though. Noboby wants to be fired and treated like they are outdated. But that's life. Perk up the skill set and you'll always have a job.

 

[laynelane]

Wasn't the last president all about NFTs? Now this one is all about AI.

“When we think about game testing, a million AI bots can run through a level of Minecraft and find where players get stuck, where they spend money, how they think about the level. So, this is—pun intended—game-changing for the developer.”

The current one can talk all he wants about all the wonderful possibilities of generative AI, but I think the above bolded is where it starts and ends with this kind of mindset.

 

[-Zelda-]

Instead of being aggressive in releasing good games for once in a very long time?

 

[Hugare]

AI is the future

But its all about how they use it. It's not a magic button. So lets wait and see.

They should (but they wont) use AI to remaster old games that used static backgrounds.

Their recent efforts "remastering" stuff like Chrono Cross were terrible

 

[Rat Rage]

Well, since 90% of their soulless run of the mill games they've been producing ever since they've started chasing western gaming trends already feel like AI-generated crap, they might as well fire all of their workforce and go the AI-route in order to - at least - make their shareholders happy, right?

 

[yurinka]

Basically all gamedevs are starting to use AI, yes.

 

[El Muerto]

I dont see a problem with it as long as they have quality control and it's unnoticeable. Games cost too much to make so if it helps them pump out more games that we enjoy then it's a win-win.