By Michael Scott
Square Enix lived up to its promised ‘aggressive’ shift into artificial intelligence by using artificial intelligence to make album art for the soundtrack to Foamstars, a forthcoming game.
Following an earlier announcement this month that the firm plans an ‘assertive’ strategy into using artificial intelligence (AI) tools, Square Enix, a video game behemoth, verified the utilization of artificial intelligence-created art in Foamstars, a forthcoming game.
Adoption of AI in the Gaming Industry
A video games news outlet report showed that Square Enix utilized artificial intelligence to generate in-game album covers for the music contained in the Foamstars soundtrack.
A Square Enix spokesperson revealed that, as developers, they are constantly evaluating new technologies to see how they can aid in game development. They tried out Midjourney utilizing simple prompts to generate abstract images.
Foamstars refers to a Square Enix-developed four-versus-four shooter-style game for the PlayStation 4 and 5. Players use foam-firing guns as they challenge other teams, utilizing the form to create terrain on the fly to acquire an advantage against enemies.
Further, this game is utilizing foam to create on the fly to obtain an upper hand against enemies. Referred to as a ‘party shooter,’ it has evoked comparisons to Nintendo’s Splatoon series with regards to feel and look.
Game Developers Seek to Boost User Experience
Between February 6 and March 4, subscribers to Sony’s PlayStation Plus membership program will be able to download and retain Foamstars. Afterwards, the game will be sold through the PlayStation Store for $30. Square Enix admitted the utilization of artificial intelligence to generate album art.
However, the firm stressed that people were responsible for everything else in the forthcoming game. Generative artificial intelligence entails AI models that generate text, music, images, and videos using prompts.
Platforms such as ChatGPT, Claude AI, and Midjourney are the main products of the upcoming consumer-facing artificial intelligence market. According to Square Enix, they liked what was generated and utilized them as the ultimate album covers players will view in the game. The development team created everything else.
In spite of repulsion from gamers, Square Enix and the entire game industry have begun embracing generative artificial intelligence into the creative process. AAA gaming studios such as Ubisoft, Blizzard Entertainment, NCSoft, and Blizzard Entertainment are using AI.
Significance of AI-Generative Tools in Gaming
In August, Activision, Call of Duty creator, noted it would use AI to mediate and suppress online abusive language. Square Enix has been quite vocal about the matter.
In a letter, Takashi Kiryu, Square Enix President, said they plan to aggressively use artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies in their content development and publishing activities. He believes this technology will boost game development productivity and be used in ‘marketing interventions.’
In April, the company’s artificial intelligence division illustrated a demo of an artificial intelligence-revised version of ‘The Portopia Serial Murder Case,’ a 1983 text game.
Square Enix is famous for Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy and also invested in Atlas, a Vienna-founded artificial intelligence startup. Atlas uses generative AI to transform images and text into three-dimensional words.
Two months ago, after Atlas came out of secrecy, Hideaki Uegara, General Manager of Investment and Business Development at Square Enix, explained the case for utilizing generative artificial intelligence in gaming.
Uehara said that in current years, the surging cost of developing games has been a problem for the gaming industry. Generative artificial intelligence is anticipated to restructure the process in new and exhilarating means.