Danger! Sony's new studio Dark Outlaw Games recruits AI image talent
Dark Outlaw Games, a brand-new PlayStation studio under Sony, recently issued a recruitment notice, looking for a senior concept artist to join the team. The studio was formerly Deviation Games and was headed by Jason Blundell, who was involved in the zombie mode design of Call of Duty: Black Ops.
Recruitment information shows that in addition to conventional digital illustrations and 3D modeling skills, candidates also require "rich experience in using generative AI tools." The last item of job responsibilities mentioned that the position will be responsible for “improving and polishing 2D art works co-created by human artists and generative AI tools.”
It should be pointed out that although Jason Blundell, the person in charge, once hosted the design of the zombie mode of "Call of Duty: Black Ops", the AI drawings that caused quite controversy at the end of last year have nothing to do with him, because he left the Treyarch studio, the development group of Black Ops, as early as February 28, 2020.
Sony Interactive Entertainment Co-CEO Hermen Hulst once publicly stated that he believes that the gaming industry will have two parallel development directions in the future: "One is the innovative experience driven by artificial intelligence, and the other is artificially created and in-depth content."
Early this year, Sony caused widespread dissatisfaction with a leaked video, which showed the AI-powered character Eloy, but the entire interaction process was very stiff and embarrassing, and even produced the "uncanny valley effect".
For developers, AI is both a tool to improve efficiency and a potential focus of controversy. On the one hand, it can accelerate concept output and reduce development costs; on the other hand, it has also sparked discussions about originality, artistic expression, and whether players buy it. Obviously, Dark Outlaw Games is not the first and will not be the last gaming company to embrace AI technology. How to make rational use of AI without sacrificing creativity depth? This very realistic problem is facing many game companies.
