Paramount Games-chef Shawn Kittelsen er fuldt ud klar over, at der venter store udfordringar forude for AAA-spiludvikling, men han ønsker ikke at vige uden om at skabe store blockbuster-titler som Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra og Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin.
I en samtale med The Game Business forklarer Kittelsen, at selvom han ønsker store AAA-oplevelser, håber han at undgå fælden med at kaste hundredvis af millioner af dollars efter dem. "So, what we do has to punch through the noise, but it doesn't always have to punch through the noise at great expense. Sometimes it can punch through with great innovation," udtaler han.
"We want to take appropriately sized bets for where the market is at today, and that means everything from exploring new ways of working with co-developers and support teams, to having a really strict governance process where we are not trying to start with a team of 300 people on day one, but we are starting with a small team that's working on core vision, core mechanics, story and art and concept, and then gradually as we are validating each of those pieces of the game, building up to the point where we feel confident to scale production and go forward."
Kittelsen indrømmer, at det er svært at føre ud i praksis. Hans metoder lyder som noget, der potentielt kan føre til en del kontraktarbejde, da folk først hentes ind til specifikke roller, når spillet er helt klar til dem - eller måske vil det kræve, at en del folk internt hos Paramount Games løbende skal rykkes rundt mellem forskellige projekter. Hvad der dog i hvert fald ikke bliver brug for lige nu, er AI.
"It'd be really easy to win points with investors by saying, 'Yeah, we're going to just use AI to make everything faster, cheaper, better.' But those tools have not reached the point of maturity yet where we can say there are truly meaningful savings to be found," lyder det fra Kittelsen. Han uddyber, at selvom der er visse ting, AI kan hjælpe med at fremskynde, så er selve indholdsudviklingen ikke noget, der bliver mærkbart hurtigere. "We want human hands to be on our products," slår Kittelsen fast og tilføjer, at det ville være hyklerisk at påstå, at Paramounts spil er skabt af fans, hvis man i næste nu må indrømme, at det reelt er en maskine, der har lavet dem.