Sony has partnered with Bandai Namco Holdings Inc. (Bandai Namco Entertainment’s parent company) in a “joint pilot program” focused on productive AI and its role in the future of video production. AI was a big theme at a recent earnings and business strategy presentation, where Sony President and CEO Hiroki Totoki described the technology as “an amplifier of human imagination and a catalyst for new possibilities,” while stressing that it won’t replace artists or creators.
In the AI-type project with Bandai Namco — which admittedly sounds vague and likely to go nowhere — Totoki said the companies have seen “greater gains in speed and productivity per person.” He also highlighted the “lack of consistency and control” as a problem for professionals in the space who want both of these things in their work, but said that AI has allowed those involved in the project to reach a level of expertise in production that was not possible before due to time constraints.
Given Bandai Namco’s relationship with video games, the fact that Totoki didn’t openly talk about games in relation to the Gen AI project seems odd (then again, it’s a thorny topic right now). Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Hideaki Nishino, however, had more to say about how AI is generally embraced within the PlayStation. Nishino said that development cycles — which are getting longer in the case of first-party PS5 games — can be accelerated by AI, while “allowing more creators to enter the market.”
Also concerning is Nishino’s admission that AI will create a “significant increase in volume […] in content.” You know: slop. He added that his company’s studios and IP are dedicated to making sure they only release the “high-quality” games that gamers come to PlayStation for.
Nishino talked about how studios like Naughty Dog and Sony’s San Diego Studio have used a facial animation tool called Mockingbird, which animates 3D models after capturing the performance. AI also helps with hair animation, with models fed videos of real hair and then outputting images with “hundreds of strands” modeled.
“As AI capabilities improve, the role of our creators will remain the same,” Nishino said. “The vision, design, and emotional impact of our games will always come from the talent of our studios and players. AI is meant to augment their abilities, not replace them.”
AI is also at the heart of the PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution upscaling tool for PS5 Pro, which has recently been updated for better performance and is now supported by a large number of third-party and first-party games. PSSR is almost certain to be a big theme for the PS6 when that comes around, but you only have to look at the public reaction to NVIDIA’s DLSS 5 reveal to see what happens when the AI boost gets more ambitious.
Another part of Sony’s presentation focused on quarterly earnings, where the company announced a 46 percent drop in PS5 sales in its fourth fiscal quarter compared to a year ago. Sony sold only 1.5 million PS5s in the last quarter, and like many big tech companies are currently struggling with rising costs and memory shortages. The company recently increased the price of its entire console lineup, the second price increase in 12 months.
