AI leads to more new games, but big studios still dominate

In short: AI is helping more games reach the market faster, but the biggest developers still capture most of the audience and revenue.

What's going on

Some game companies are using generative AI, which is software that can create text, images, or code after being given examples, to speed up parts of game making. Stanislas Marchand, a former game development leader at French mobile game company Voodoo, said his team tested about 3,000 new game ideas per year. He said AI only shortened the process from about 14 days to 10 days for a mobile game.

Even with modest time savings, the number of new games being released is rising fast. Research group ATTN Economy counted 181,000 game releases in the six months to May, including 43,500 on Apple’s iOS and 137,000 on Android. That is up 118 percent on iOS and 73 percent on Android compared with the year before.

At the same time, there are signs of worker and player pushback. A May report linked to the GDC Festival of Gaming said one in four game workers had been laid off in the past two years, and 52 percent of professionals now think generative AI is bad for the industry. Fans have also raised concerns, including a controversy around whether Sega used generative AI on the upcoming Crazy Taxi: World Tour, and Sega said it used AI as a support tool but not for performers.

What to watch

AI may make game characters less scripted, like talking to an actor who can improvise instead of reading a fixed line. But trust looks like a major risk. ATTN Economy also cited data showing only 13 percent of consumers trust AI, and the biggest publishers still dominate, with the top 1 percent controlling $75.6bn in revenue in 2025.

Source: Financial Times