Griffin Gaming Partners’ Peter Levin Talks AI, Market Trends, Emerging Markets & Hollywood Interest Amid GDC

variety.com:

Kaare Eriksen Media Analyst The push to utilize generative AI across entertainment isn’t sparing the ever-complex video games industry by any means.

With the Game Developers Conference underway this week, Griffin Gaming Partners managing director and co-founder Peter Levin joined Variety Intelligence Platform president Andrew Wallenstein and media analyst Kaare Eriksen on Variety’s “Strictly Business” podcast and wasted no breath expressing the urgency with which AI tech is top of mind for the business and development sides of gaming alike. “I think we’re gonna continue to see a bunch of conversations around AI, its impact on games development, its impact on the picks-and-shovels businesses in and around games development,” said Levin.

Extensive layoffs throughout the global gaming industry are ongoing for more than a year now as major publishers and gaming divisions within larger entertainment companies have gotten aggressive with cost-cutting measures.

Concern over AI is mounting among game developers hoping for job prospects to lighten and for stability to come, but Levin sees the embrace of AI as integral to gaming’s future. “It’s an optimal time to be a developer or publisher and bake in the AI functionality within your product roadmap,” said Levin. “If they’re not crazy about it, that’s going to happen with or without their sentiment.” “I say this gently and lightly and [am] certainly not celebrating the eradication of anyone’s jobs,” Levin added. “But gaming, traditionally, has been much more akin to enterprise software with respect to recognizing when they need to trim the fat.” AI tech has long been part of the development process and gaming experience across traditional titles, whether for programming enemy.