‘Some studios will not survive’ because AI takes over, says Google Cloud Exec

Generative AI causes an industrial settlement in gaming and some studios will not survive the fall-out.

That is the warning from Jack Buser, Global Games Director at Google Cloud, who says that the industry is going into a revolution as great as everyone in its history.

“Some of these game companies are going to make it, and some of them are not,” said Buser Decrypt. “And some will be born by this revolution.”

Buser, a 30-year-old veteran from the industry, cooperates with publishers and studios to use cloud infrastructure and AI, from scaling multiplayer systems to analyzing player data and testing generative tools. That role puts him at the intersection of Big Tech and Game Development, where studios connect to the servers of Google and AI models to build or support their titles.

He pointed out that AI arrives, just when developers are confronted with increasing financial pressure and the reversing player involvement with new games.

“More than half of the playing time is more than six years old in games,” he said. “So if you make a new game, you will compete for less than half of the available playing time. And if you are the maker of one of those older games, you are struggling to keep it relevant and keep players involved.”

After decades of growth, the global game industry Post-Pandemic fell, with income in 2022 before they recover. In 2024 it generated $ 182.7 billion, an increase of 3.2% compared to the previous year. Turnover is expected to increase to $ 188.9 billion in 2025, an increase of 3.4%.

“You have a broken business model and the result is fired, game message and other problems in the game industry in recent years,” said Buser.

Buser, however, believes that generative AI could be the way out of the industry. A Harris poll commissioned by Google showed that nine out of 10 developers already use AI tools in part of the production process.

“If you go a use case through use case in your development frame, from concept to quality assurance, and you attack every use case at AI, you can have a considerably radical reduction in development time,” he said.

Developers test generative tools that are aimed at changing the way games look, feel and evolve in real time. Buser called this the era of the “Living Game” titles that use AI in real time to analyze the behavior of players and immediately generate new content. In contrast to traditional games, which depend on patches and downloadable content (DLC) drops, these systems can adjust within a few minutes instead of months.

“Take Darth Vader in Fortnite, for example, the player’s reaction was strong,” said Buser. “We just scratch the surface.”

But the rollout was not flexible. When Fortnite introduced an AI-driven Darth Vader earlier this year, the bone spewed racist and homophobic expression before Epic Games quickly confused the system.

Not everyone welcomed the experiment. After the release, SAG-AFTRA filed a labor complaint against Epic Dojaman Lama Productions and accused the company of replacing voice factors through artificial intelligence without the permission of the trade union.

“This indictment concerns the crucial role of the trade union in negotiating conditions regarding the replacement of the negotiation unit that works with AI technology,” said a Sag-Aftra spokesperson Decodeer. “We very much support AI tools to improve the public experience, but employers cannot implement these types of applications without first coming to the trade union and negotiations.”

Buser attracted comparisons between the increased role of AI and earlier Shakups in the Game History – moments when technological shifts shift the industry card again. Some companies have adapted to the transition from cartridges to CD-ROMs. Others not.

“You will see some companies that have not made it,” said Buser. “And nowadays you see others only huge game companies that I will call CD-ROM-Native. This is exactly the same that is happening now.”