The issue of AI in game development remains thorny, but Alistair McFarlane–the COO and company director of Rust developer Facepunch–doesn’t see it as a detriment to in the industry. Instead, he embraces it as “another tool” that’s “for the better, not the worse.”
“[AI is] powerful, it’s efficient, and at the end of the day, it’s just another tool, one that helps people move faster and focus on the creative stuff,” McFarlane told Sky News. “Sure, it’s disruptive, no question about that. Every major shift in tech is. But used properly, AI doesn’t replace creativity, it amplifies it. It removes busywork, speeds up iteration, and gives teams more space to experiment.”
Last year, the 2025 CESA Video Game Industry Report shared the results of a survey that revealed over 50% of Japanese video game developers use AI in some way. Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto has said that the company won’t rush into AI, while Sony’s approach to AI emphasizes it as a support tool rather than an attempt to replace human creativity.
Sony recently filed patents for AI-generative podcasts starring characters from PlayStation games that will act as podcast hosts sharing targeted video game news with customers. It remains to be seen if that technology functions as described.
Earlier this year, Google launched a beta for its AI tool Project Genie, which was briefly able to create playable gaming worlds based on Nintendo’s iconic characters. The existence of that tool sent game stocks sharply down despite the fact that none of Project Genie’s created worlds had much depth, nor were they very fun to play.
