A senior executive at Paramount Games Studio has expressed skepticism about claims that generative AI will dramatically reduce costs and accelerate game development, arguing that the technology has not yet reached a level where meaningful savings can be consistently achieved.
Speaking in an interview with TheGameBusiness about the growing industry interest in AI tools, Kittelsen said it can be tempting for companies to make bold promises about the technology’s potential. “It’d be really easy to win points with investors by saying, ‘Yeah, we’re going to just use AI to make everything faster, cheaper, better.’ But those tools have not reached the point of maturity yet where we can say there are truly meaningful savings to be found.”
While acknowledging that AI can provide some benefits in areas such as coding, Kittelsen argued that content creation has not seen the same level of improvement. “For one, while there are perhaps accelerative properties to coding that we can achieve with AI today, actual content development and generation is not moving that much faster and certainly not improving the quality of the content that we can create. We want human hands to be on our products.”
Kittelsen also raised concerns about relying on AI when developing games based on beloved entertainment properties. “If we say ‘by fans, for fans’, and then we put AI in, then it’s… ‘Well, who made the decisions about what’s fun?’ ‘Well, we let the computer decide.’ Did the computer grow up collecting Ninja Turtles action figures? And comic books? And dreaming of skateboarding in the sewers? No.”
The comments come as Paramount Skydance expands its ambitions in the gaming sector through the recently established Paramount Games Studio. The new division consolidates the company’s interactive entertainment efforts under a single banner and is intended to make gaming a central part of its broader content strategy.
Led by president Tony Driscoll, the studio brings together the resources of Skydance Interactive and Skydance New Media. Its upcoming slate includes Amy Hennig’s Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra, an untitled Star Wars project, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin, with the company emphasizing premium adaptations aimed directly at existing fans of major entertainment franchises.
