Anyone keeping tabs on the gaming scene knows the industry has seen a surge in releases thanks to user-friendly game engines and digital distribution. Now, Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Hideaki Nishino is tipping his hat to artificial intelligence (AI) tools, suggesting they’ll turbocharge this trend even further.

In a presentation to investors, Nishino highlighted an anticipated rise in the volume and diversity of content available to players. He attributed this to AI development tools that are ‘lowering barriers to creation, accelerating development cycles, and enabling more creators to enter the market.’ This isn’t just about quantity; it’s also about quality—thanks to automation tools like Sony’s Mockingbird, which speeds up 3D animation processes.

These aren’t just theoretical advancements. Nishino cited internal Sony projects where AI has been used in areas such as quality assurance and 3D modeling. For instance, a tool called Mockingbird can convert raw motion capture data into in-game animations much faster than traditional methods, making the process more efficient and less time-consuming.

But efficiency isn’t just about speed; it’s also about innovation. Sony Group President Hiroki Totoki noted that AI tools are leading to ‘more innovative and ambitious projects—projects that were previously difficult to pursue due to constraints of cost and time.’ This means that game developers have more freedom to explore new ideas, potentially resulting in a richer gaming landscape.

It’s not just Sony either. A pilot partnership with Bandai Namco has demonstrated significant gains in speed and productivity per person in video production, albeit with some fine-tuning needed to address issues of consistency and controllability. These tools are showing promise for creating highly sophisticated and realistic outputs that were previously out of reach due to production time constraints.