PlayStation CEO Hideaki Nishino devoted a surprisingly long portion of his recent Sony earnings presentation remarks to making the case for AI and how it will benefit gaming and the company’s bottom line. He was not subtle, and he didn’t hedge, laying out an ambitious vision that sees AI tools incorporated everywhere from the PlayStation Store to the ways in which Naughty Dog and Guerrilla Games render characters’ hair. “We believe AI will unleash the creativity of our studios, power a more curated platform, and enhance the PlayStation experience for both players and creators,” he said.
Nishino made the case that generative AI and LLM technology can make the company more efficient and cut out menial work that plagues creatives at various levels of the development process. “For example, our teams created a tool we call Mockingbird that quickly animates 3D facial model based on the performance capture,” he said. “Importantly, we are not replacing human performers, but rather optimizing how we process the data from these live captures. With Mockingbird, animation work that would have taken hours can now be completed in a fraction of a second.”
He continued:
We’ve already seen the teams at Naughty Dog, San Diego Studio, and others adapt our tools, including in released titles like Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered. Another example is the tool we built for animating hair. This is often a labor-intensive process given the volume of strands that must be created. Our teams have accelerated this process by taking videos of real hairstyles and having an AI tool output a 3D model with hundreds of strand models. These practical applications allow our teams to spend less time on manual, high-effort tasks, and to instead reinvest their time into building richer worlds and gameplay for our players.
The executive also pointed to AI-powered racing agents in Gran Turismo and suggested recent experiments have shown that “NPCs with their own personalities can create a living, dynamic world for the players to explore.” He may have been alluding to leaked prototype footage of a generative AI version of Horizon Zero Dawn protagonist Aloy, who theoretically could have unscripted conversations with the player. The experiment prompted Ashly Burch, who plays Aloy, to say she was “worried about game performance as an art form.”
Better games or more slop?
While touting the benefits of AI for everything from routing PlayStation Store payments more effectively to increasing visual fidelity with features like PSSR on the PS5 Pro, Nishino also hinted at a somewhat more dystopic future for the platform. “We expect to see a meaningful increase in the volume and diversity of the content available to the players,” he said. “Our platform’s role will be critical in ensuring players find the right content in an increasingly crowded landscape. Our studios and their IP will also continue to be a key differentiator.”
The PlayStation Store is already overrun with shovelware and AI slop listings attempting to cash in on recent Steam hits. It’s unclear whether AI can be used to solve that problem or if it will only make it 10 times worse. “As AI brings more choices to players than ever, the value of our platform will lie in its ability to recommend and personalize at scale,” Nishino said.
He pointed to a future in which AI can tell players what to buy. “Our AI capabilities will evolve into a consumer-centric experience that not only suggests the next game a player might enjoy, but also the next gameplay moment, subscription, accessory, or merchandise that best reflects their passion,” the executive claimed.
The graphics arms race continues
This is the same AI technology, by the way, that is currently making console gaming less affordable than ever. Sony recently hiked the price of the PS5 by $100 due to ongoing economic pressures, including AI-fueled shortages of RAM and other PC components. During this same earnings call, the company even said that its forecast for how many new PS5s it can sell in its coming fiscal year is constrained not by consumer demand but by its ability to source affordable parts.
Therein lies part of the paradox of AI for Sony. Nishino is heralding it as a helpful tool for addressing the current crisis facing console gaming. Namely, that budgets for AAA blockbuster games, led by first-party studios like Sony’s, have exploded as they chase ever higher visual fidelity, even as the install base for the platforms has stagnated. AI could be a magic bullet to help companies improve graphics while streamlining game development costs, while also expanding the audience for gaming through better discoverability and accessibility. Or this could all just be wishful thinking.
“We believe AI will unleash the creativity of our studios, power a more curated platform, and enhance the PlayStation experience for both players and creators,” Nishino said. “With our global player base, deep library of IP, and integrated ecosystem, AI is a powerful tool for us to deliver a truly cutting-edge entertainment experience.”
