Masahiro Sakurai, director of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, believes that generative AI will continue to drive up the number of game releases, with most titles potentially struggling to turn a profit. Rapid production and low-quality mass production may also exacerbate gameplay homogenization, but AI cannot replicate the unique styles that creators have yet to form.
In an interview with Japanese media outlet Denfaminicogamer, Sakurai used Steam's release scale to illustrate this change. He noted that the platform released 275 games in 2010, while this year's count has exceeded 19,000, a figure that artificial intelligence may cause to grow further. Facing such a massive volume of releases, players find it difficult to fully explore all titles, and many games may fail to generate revenue.
In Sakurai's view, low-quality games rapidly produced or mass-produced using artificial intelligence are likely just repeating systems already seen in other works. He cited simple gameplay concepts like organizing bookshelves or finding a needle in a haystack as examples prone to replication. After a game where players search for a needle among five million strands of hay became popular, clones quickly appeared, with developers even needing to label their Steam images as "original."
Sakurai further stated that even if AI can imitate more complex works like Ico or Shadow of the Colossus in the future, it cannot replicate the artistic style that Fumito Ueda has yet to create. He believes that AI mainly references existing achievements, so human creators who can forge their own path and develop a unique style will become increasingly important in an era flooded with low-quality content.