The future is already at stake

In the same way that the technologies involved in video games are diverse, we can expect that there will not be a single great technological leap that transforms the medium overnight. The very history of interactive electronic entertainment confirms that the great advances it has experienced have occurred through many simultaneous transformations: tools that allow creating faster, devices that modify the way of playing, loading or transition screens that disappear to give way to more immediate and immersive experiences, and platforms that make the device from which a game is executed less important. We also know that not everything we are promised the future will bring ends up arriving or having an impact that is not ephemeral, but it is a fact that technology changes how video games are made, how we play them, and also the environmental cost of producing them.

However, generative artificial intelligence has the potential to transform many fields, and video games are clearly one of them. ACCIÓ, the Agency for Business Competitiveness, identifies generative AI in a recent report as one of the key technological trends in the sector and points out, precisely, both the opportunities and the debate it generates. For a small studio, for example, having tools capable of generating images, voices, texts, or prototypes can significantly reduce both time and costs in certain production phases. But, at the same time, as in other creative fields, the use of AI raises doubts and concerns, both because it threatens the jobs of specialized professionals and because it takes advantage of human work. And while the industry explores these possibilities, debates remain open regarding ethics, copyright, training data, authorship, employment, and creative homogenization.

But before talking about generative AI, it is worth remembering that artificial intelligence has been an integral part of video games practically since their early days, as recalled by Conxi Pérez, CEO of RolldBox Games and computer engineer specializing in AI. Non-player characters, for example, incorporate systems that determine how they move or interact with the player. However, generative AI is a completely different matter: Pérez sees it above all as "a process accelerator," capable of helping in certain phases of development.

In their studio, this use has very defined limits. "Creativity is human, it is not artificial intelligence," they state. RolldBox uses AI, for example, to combine concepts and graphic resources (assets) already created by the team and to streamline the dialogue between artistic and creative direction, but not to replace their work. It can also help with an initial translation, in certain programming tasks, or in other auxiliary processes, while the final results pass through human hands. "Our art is created and made one hundred percent by people," they emphasize.

This distinction is especially significant in a medium where technology is not just a functional tool, but also a tool for expression. "It is not just about gamifying things: a video game is also sculpture, creativity, art," points out Pérez. Debates continue to be open regarding ethics, copyright, training data, authorship, employment, and creative homogenization. Intellectual property and transparency regarding the use of AI will be, according to Pérez, increasingly important issues.

Virtual reality, augmented reality and, in a broader sense, XR –or extended reality, the technologies that combine the physical world with the digital to create interactive and immersive experiences– allow for overlapping or combining physical and digital worlds, so that the place where we play changes, expands; the player's actual physical environment becomes part of the experience. The application of these innovations is also especially interesting for fields that go beyond entertainment, or that do not have solely a playful purpose.

The challenge is to find situations in which immersion provides more than what a traditional screen offers, because the use of an immersive technology does not by itself guarantee that the user experience is satisfactory, or more motivating than a more traditional approach.

Computers and consoles are also increasing their processing capacity. Hardware continues to evolve. Portable devices make it possible to play away from the television and thanks to the cloud, gaming no longer depends as much on the power of our machine. Multiplatform expands potential audiences and can make it easier for the same project to reach consoles, PCs, mobiles, or immersive devices, and for players using very different devices to play together. For studios, however, each platform implies challenges, because it requires adaptations, tests, specific interfaces, and entails development costs. Making a game playable everywhere is not solely, by any means, exporting it in a different format.

And we never talk about this enough, but there is a less visible bill, the environmental one, which we often overlook, perhaps largely due to a lack of knowledge, but who knows if also to avoid a guilty conscience. It is an obvious fact that video games depend on an ecosystem that consumes resources, energy, and materials (from the manufacturing of consoles, computers, and devices to the servers necessary to distribute and maintain certain services). Increasingly demanding graphics have pushed the industry to shorten the hardware life cycle (another way of programming its obsolescence, mind you), while constant updates and service-based models force infrastructure to be kept active for years.

To this bill is now added that of artificial intelligence. AI systems also require considerable resources, from electricity to the water used to cool data centers. "Let's not think that AI can be put everywhere without consequences," warns Pérez. The question, therefore, is not only what a technology can do, but when it makes sense to use it and what cost it entails to do so.

If sustainability concerns us, we are obliged to ask ourselves not only about the capacity of technology, but also about its useful life, its cost, and its environmental impact.

Perhaps the question is to identify which technologies solve real problems, open up new forms of culturally valuable expression, or make possible truly new and rewarding experiences. In the case of AI, Pérez summarizes it like this: "We must know when it makes sense to use it and when it does not, but we cannot lose either our critical thinking or our creativity". Beyond the increase in immersion or hyperrealism and graphics definition, the future of video games should consist of deciding consciously and consistently what we all want to do for the better together – gamers, creators, industry, institutions, society... – with all of its immense possibilities.