1 articlesAfter Square Enix revealed its latest financial results, the publisher then went on to publish a progress report on its aggressive business plan for the next few years.
The plan, which was called Square Enix Reboots and Awakens, involves a three-year strategy where they’ll aim to improve the efficiency of game development through the help of AI technologies.
In its progress report, the company revealed that it partnered with the University of Tokyo’s Matsuo-Iwasawa Laboratory to achieve its goals.
Essentially, Square Enix will be leaning heavily toward the use of generative AI to “establish a competitive advantage in game development”.
The project, which is called “Joint Development of Game QA Automation Technology Using Generative AI”, aims to automate 70% of debugging and QA work using generative AI.
Square Enix plans to achieve this by the end of 2027.
Right now, the project is made up of ten members, including some of Square Enix’s engineers as well as a few researchers from the University of Tokyo.
Square Enix’s Push to Use Generative AI for Game Development
As mentioned, this is part of Square Enix’s plan to “establish a competitive advantage in game development.” Through the use of generative AI, they’ll be able to expedite the process of game development by letting AI technologies do the bulk of the work in certain areas.
However, the topic of using generative AI to automate certain areas of game development has been met with mixed reactions.
Some argue that since QA testing is boring and repetitive, using generative AI would make the process a lot faster to complete. Meanwhile, others argue that humans are still better at spotting errors when testing a game.
There’s also the fact that using AI means replacing job positions, which results in a wave of layoffs in the near future.
However, it’s worth noting that it’s not only Square Enix that’s been pursuing the use of generative AI for QA purposes.
In fact, some publishers and developers have been eyeing it for years.
For example, Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios, said back in 2022 that it’s his dream to have QA testers that are run by AI one day. He even considers the move to be transformational.
Last month, a report from Business Insider revealed that EA staff were pressured to follow their management’s demands to use and apply AI on pretty much every aspect of development. With that, only time will tell how Square Enix’s push to use generative AI will turn out.
They’re aiming for the end of 2027 for their project to be completed.
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