Yoko Taro thinks AI will make ‘all game creators umemployed’ in 50 years

Nier creative director Yoko Taro has said that he thinks that AI could make all game developers unemployed in 50 years.

During an interview to promote his upcoming game, Hundred Line, Taro discussed the implementation of AI technology in game development and how he sees it impacting creative industries.

“I also think that AI will make all game creators unemployed,” he told Famitsu. “In 50 years, game creators may be treated like bards.”

Yoko Taro is best known for Nier: Automata. Developed by PlatinumGames and published by Square Enix, Nier: Automata was originally released for PS4 and PC in 2017, before making its way to Xbox One in 2018.

A Switch version of the game was released in October 2022, adding new costumes exclusive to that port.

“I think that in the near future, we will move from an era where we have to imitate the style of our favorite creators to an era where we can have our favorite scenarios generated,” he continued.

“AI will determine the preferences of users and skillfully generate route branchings that they would want to read, and the recommendation capabilities will continue to improve.”

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 director Daniel Vávra recently said that he hopes AI helps speed up the process of making games, because he has “more ideas than I have time”.

As in other creative industries, generative AI has become a hot topic in video games, with many voicing concerns about it potentially leading to job losses and widespread plagiarism.

Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick recently said that not only does he think AI won’t lead to job losses, he believes it could lead to increased employment. He also said that he couldn’t think of any new guardrails that might be required to protect developers.

Speaking to VGC, Split Fiction and It Takes Two director Josef Fares said he thinks developers should work with AI rather than push against it and called it “both scary and very exciting.”