GoKawiilSony is partnering with Bandai Namco Holdings Inc. (the parent company of Bandai Namco Entertainment) on a "collaborative pilot initiative" focused on generative AI and its role in the future of video production. AI was a big theme in the company's latest earnings and corporate strategy presentation, with Sony President and CEO Hiroki Totoki describing the technology as an "amplifier of human imagination and a catalyst for new possibilities," while insisting that it won't replace artists or creators.
On the gen AI project with Bandai Namco — which admittedly sounds quite vague and may well not go anywhere — Totoki said the companies have seen "massive gains in speed and productivity per person." He also highlighted "a lack of consistency and controllability" as an issue for professionals in the space who demand both of these things in their work, but said AI has allowed those involved in the project to achieve a level of sophistication in production that wasn't previously possible due to time constraints.
Given Bandai Namco's association with video games, the fact that Totoki didn't explicitly talk about gaming with regards to the Gen AI project seems a bit odd (then again, it is a thorny topic right now). Sony Interactive Entertainment chief Hideaki Nishino, however, did have a lot to say about how AI in general is being embraced within PlayStation. Nishino said that development cycles — increasingly generation-spanning in the case of first-party PS5 games — can be sped up by AI, while "enabling more creators to enter the market."
What's more concerning is Nishino's admission that AI will create a "meaningful increase in the volume [...] of content." You know: slop. He added that that his company's studios and IP are committed to ensuring that they only put out "high-quality" games that players come to PlayStation for.
Nishino talked about how studios like Naughty Dog and Sony's San Diego Studio have adopted a facial animation tool called Mockingbird, which animates 3D models after they've been through performance capture. AI is also helping with hair animation, with models fed videos of real hairstyles and then outputting images with "hundreds of strands" modeled.
"As AI capabilities evolve, the role of our creators will remain unchanged," Nishino said. "The vision, the design, and the emotional impact of our games will always come from the talent of our studios and performers. AI is meant to augment their capabilities, not replace them."
AI is also at the heart of the PS5 Pro's PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution upscaling tool, which was recently updated to be more effective and is now supported in a large number of third- and first-party games. PSSR is almost certain to be a big theme of the PS6 when that rolls around, but you only have to look at the community's reaction to NVIDIA's unveiling of DLSS 5 to see what happens when AI upscaling gets a bit too ambitious.
The other half of Sony's presentation was focused on its gloomy quarterly earnings, in which the company announced a 46 percent downturn in PS5 sales in its fourth fiscal quarter compared to last year. Sony sold just 1.5 million PS5s in the last quarter, and like most large tech companies is currently battling rising costs and memory shortages. The company recently increased the price of its entire console lineup, the second price hike in 12 months.