Half of Game Developers Work at Studios Already Using Generative AI: Survey

Generative AI might feel like a relatively new phenomenon, but it’s existed long enough for game studios to build it into their development routines. A new survey of over 3,000 professionals from the game industry found that 49% of developers work at studios that already use generative AI. Most of those developers are involved in AI-inclusive processes, with 31% of all respondents saying they use generative AI tools at work.

The survey comes courtesy of the Game Developers Conference (GDC), which published its 2024 State of the Industry report on Thursday. For the first time in the report’s 12-year history, survey respondents—who were found and polled by Omdia, a London-based research firm and GDC sister company—were asked about their experiences with generative AI tools like ChatGPT, DALL-E, GitHub Copilot, and Adobe Generative Fill. Not only did nearly half of surveyed developers say such tools were used at their workplace, but the GDC and Omdia found that indie studios were most likely to use generative AI, with 37% of respondents saying they personally leveraged those tools. Only 23% of respondents said their workplace wasn’t interested in working with generative AI. 

But even developers who use generative AI worry about the technology’s ethical implications. Of those surveyed, 42% of developers said they were very concerned about the ethics of using generative AI within their industry, while another 42% said they were “somewhat concerned.” Just 12% weren’t concerned at all. 

Some of those who were at least somewhat worried about generative AI’s ethical implications expressed concern over intellectual property regulations and plagiarism, particularly how ChatGPT, DALL-E, and other tools tend to rely on text and images obtained without their creators’ consent. Others said they were worried that AI would exacerbate the already atrocious rate of layoffs at game studios—a topical issue also covered by the GDC’s survey. 

Indeed, when asked what kind of impact they think generative AI will have on the game industry, 57% of respondents said they expected “mixed impact,” while 18% expected “negative impact.” While developers working in business, marketing, and programming were more likely to say the technology would have a positive impact,” the report notes, “those in narrative, visual arts, and quality assurance were more likely to say the impact would be negative.” Notably, these latter departments are more likely to be targeted by AI-related layoffs, with generative AI already impacting work typically performed by writers, graphic designers, storyboard artists, and more.

“Management will seriously think that they can replace artists or pay artists less for their work,” one anonymous respondent said. “They are already doing questionable things while the tech is still being developed. I expect artists to be laid off in full once the tech becomes proven.”

Only some respondents’ workplaces currently have policies in place that guide the use of generative AI. A whopping 32% of developers said their studios had no generative AI policy whatsoever, while 30% said their workplace’s policy was “optional.” Strangely, 2% of respondents said they were required to use generative AI tools at work.