Eccentric yet genius game creator Yoko Taro has recently shared an opinion on the current state of the gaming industry.
Yoko Taro on Current State of Gaming Industry
Taro recently spoke to media outlet Inverse in an interview discussing the recent state of the gaming industry, especially with the creators. He talked about the industry changing through the years explaining this “invisible wall” that divides what games currently do and the unknown. Way back in 2014, he also talked about this at a Game Developers Conference detailing this vision of concentric circles depicting the potential of games.
Today, Taro thinks his projects that he has created through the years have not broken that certain well yet. “I might have had some kind of effect on individuals, but overall, I do not feel I have broken outside of the long-established frameworks of entertainment.”
After three decades, Taro says that the industry has “taken one step forward and one step back.” He thinks developing games is still a struggle for an artistic with the chance to create change in its audience versus as a product made for public consumption that in turn becomes a profit for large corporations.
“In recent times there has been a huge increase in the freedom creators have in terms of depicting variety and diversity. On the other hand, there is also a new wall being built in some areas where those creators now ‘have’ to depict diversity.”
Taro’s real issue with the industry is actually not about diversity, but his distrust of the companies that just want to commodify these improvements for more profit. “Making games is a business where you create a product and then that translates into money,” he said.
AI Can Be An Asset or a Great Threat
On another note, Taro also discussed using AI in development. He thinks it can be useful to independent creators in the years ahead if this is kept out of the wrong hands. He says if AI is truly free for the masses to use, it would “lead to a more liberal and democratic world of game creation” and end the domination of the industry by ever-expanding corporations.
Taro fears that if the big corporations exploit AI, it will become a threat.
“They will take what had succeeded or the elements that will likely be successful from the teeming masses of creative works, combine those together, market them, and sell them,” Taro says. “The result of this would be that the essence of what we call the games industry becomes mainly investment and marketing.”
“Creators will become little more than expendable components to be used and consumed,” he adds.
This is why Taro jokingly wants an alien invasion of Earth and creators will be forced to make a living developing games with low-tech. “I would give anything to see what an 8-bit Call of Duty born from that situation would look like.”