Godus creator Peter Molyneux believes that generative AI is “a real game-changer” for video games, and that anyone will be able to “create a game from a single command, like ‘Create a battle royale game set on a pirate ship.’” These are some of Molyneux’s predictions for where video games will be heading in 25 years.
“AI is going to be the real game changer. There’s going to be a time when AI is used to create huge parts of the game – AI characters, animations, dialogue, VO, there’s so much that AI will be able to handle,” Molyneux said. Eurogamerwho spoke to a number of industry personalities about their visions for the future.
“And ultimately I think AI will open the door for everyone and allow everyone to create games. You’ll be able to, for example, create a game from a single command, like ‘Create a battle royale game set on a pirate ship,’ and your AI will go and do it for you.”
Molyneux also predicted that movies and video games will continue to intertwine. “I think Hollywood will continue to be fascinated by games and will come for more of the storytelling and narrative of games. The success of Fallout and, to some extent, The Witcher, and the deal between Remedy and Annapurna to bring Control and Alan Wake to the big screen, show that games have these worlds that Hollywood can really get lost in.”
I think a lot about this video profile Molyneux while he was working on Legacy, his last released game. It’s full of quotes that seem to repeat themselves throughout his career, accumulating dramatic irony.
“I always think about that when we hire people. They give us the most precious thing: a little piece of their life. And if we don’t do something good, how terrible that would be,” Molyneux says in an enthusiastic whisper.
During development, Legacy transitioned to a blockchain game, seemingly abandoning many of its features and narrative, and reportedly sold £40 million in land deed NFTs before launch. It’s now virtually unplayable. How awful!
“I’ve had a lot of excuses in the past. I’ve never done anything on this platform before – excuse. I don’t have enough money – excuse. I don’t have the right team – excuse. Now it’s all about our dedication and passion, finding the soul of what will be a great game,” he told Red Bull Gaming five years ago.
Now that Legacy is a disaster, Molyneux’s excuse is: that the publisher “sold” them the blockchain ideaand that he is “not a person who understands it deeply.” It doesn’t matter that he showed up in Las Vegas in 2021 to extoll all the supposed benefits of blockchain gaming“We have this incredible simulation, this incredible narrative that we’re spinning in the game. We have moral choices and competition with each other, all in this completely new world, which is of course exactly what blockchain is all about.”
Remember: Molyneux no longer talks to the press and does not exaggerate. Although the resonant quotes do not come only from Moylneux.
“We wanted to make a game that was about building things. I think there were two reasons. I love building things, and I think Peter loves the idea of other people building things,” explains Paul McLaughlin, Legacy’s art director. “I think he wants to give the audience the opportunity to experience some of these things that he himself might not fully understand.”
In this context, you can see why Molyneux is interested in generative AI – a tool that supposedly helps other people create, and which is particularly beloved by people who don’t really “understand” creativity themselves.
Molyneux and his studio 22cans are currently working on Masters Of Albion, a fresh god-like game that seems to revive some of the features of Legacy. Most of the reports about the game have been positive, and most of the criticism of Molyneux is classified as criticism of his “overpromising.” I disagree with both, because there is a difference between being naive and overpromising – which Steve Hogarty Described as an “infallibly passionate ouroboros of promise and sadness” – and deliberately misleading.
