CD Projekt’s co-CEO isn’t convinced they achieved a ‘full redemption arc’ with Cyberpunk 2077, as he predicts a new wave of generative AI games.
The use of generative AI in game development has been a contentious issue for years, sparking blowback against the likes of Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7, Crimson Desert, and more recently, Sega’s reboot of Crazy Taxi.
Despite the negative hubbub, it hasn’t stopped some developers from using the tool, although so far still in fairly limited ways. While it can help streamline administrative tasks, there have been cases where it’s been used to create temporary assets, voiceovers, or draw up concept art, which somehow always seem to ‘accidentally’ end up being left in the final product.
Nevertheless it’s currently a relatively minor point of contention, but CD Projekt co-CEO, Michał Nowakowski, has warned that games made entirely with generative AI will soon be a reality.
Speaking at DevGAMM Gdańsk in Poland (via Knowledge), Nowakowski said he ‘knows for a fact’ that a wave of games made purely with generative AI are inbound.
‘I was in a conversation with a person who started a studio and was telling me: ‘I’m running a primarily AI-based studio. I can have 40 prototypes within a week, two weeks from now I can have five games that I chose are going to be the best and, three weeks from now, I’m actually launching a game’,’ he explained.
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Nowakowski then sighed, adding: ‘Maybe that’s going to be successful, but I have some doubts whether this is really the path to follow.’
While he doesn’t expand further on these doubts (or indicate what kind of games they are – as they’re more likely to be mobile than anything masquerading as a triple-A title) Nowakowski believes one of the biggest problems facing the industry is getting attention in a crowded market.
You only have to look at the autumn release schedules to see how true that is, but Nowakowski believes ‘as long as you have a fresh idea, with a soul, with legs, you should have a genuine shot at being successful’. A comment you could interpret as a dig against generative AI’s use.
Elsewhere in the same interview, Nowakowski reflected on the disastrous launch of Cyberpunk 2077. While the game has been vastly improved, and expanded on, since it came out in 2020, he doesn’t believe everyone has forgiven the studio.
‘I’m not 100% convinced we went through the full redemption arc,’ Nowakowski said. ‘I’m convinced that we lost the faith of some people indefinitely, and that’s a fair thing. But I do hope we will be able to make it back – if not with The Witcher 4, then with whatever comes next.’
While CD Projekt is working on a lot of projects right now, between The Witcher 4, the sequel to Cyberpunk 2077, a new Witcher 3 expansion, the Witcher spin-off codenamed Sirius, a remake of the original Witcher, and new IP Project Hadar, it doesn’t want to turn into a studio which knocks out major games every year.
‘Our dream is to be making more games, although we never want to turn into the studio that’s going to be launching a big game every year,’ Nowakowski added. ‘It may happen, but this is not the goal.
‘We have a rough 10-year rolling plan, but the goal is not to flood the games market with CD Projekt games. We just want to make really cool games, and we don’t want to have a ton of IPs either. We’re not planning to grow in that way.’
The Witcher 3 expansion Songs Of The Past is set to be the next title from the studio, which is slated for 2027.
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