Elon Musk announces an AI game studio under xAI

Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, is venturing into the gaming world. He shared the plan to build its own AI game studio.

Announcing the move on X, he explained that the intention was to increase the quality of the game and to “make games great again”. Musk believes it is damaged by corporate control.

Too many game studios that are owned by massive corporations. @xAI is going to start an AI game studio to make games great again! https://t.co/UR4nFODyfd

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 27, 2024

The announcement followed Billy Markus, Dogecoin’s creator, who criticized the current state of gaming.

Markus was frustrated that game developers and journalists have become ‘ideologically captured’. Gamers, historically opposed to greed and manipulation by developers, now see these things in the industry.

Elon Musk has usually voiced against the DEI approach in modern games

Musk, a longtime gamer and top-ranked Diablo 4 player, has often spoken out about the gaming industry’s move toward identity politics and virtue signaling. He’s spoken out against pronouns and other agenda-driven content being slipped into major video games, something he views as a growing trend.

Modern gaming has made this approach to storytelling common, and that’s earned the rage of players. Following the troubled launches of games like Suicide Squad, Justice League, and Dragon Age: The Veilguard, gamers are feeling more and more encouraged to speak out against what they see as a decline in quality. 

AI could help cut the time and costs that typically go into AAA games

By launching an AI studio, Musk’s plan could help gamers get titles up in significantly less time than typical AAA studios. These huge budgeted gaming companies take five to ten years to bring out new games. This leads to the potential for faster AI adoption in gaming.

Mark Kern aka Grummz, a former team lead at World of Warcraft, praised Musk’s announcement.

AA games this year are outperforming AAA titles, Kern pointed out. According to him, the high costs, risks, and large teams and budgets behind AAA games are inefficient and frequently result in recycled ideas. In comparison, smaller AA studios with budgets around $40 to $70 million are delivering bigger returns and leading sales.

It was also revealed previously that xAI will soon release a standalone consumer app, similar to ChatGPT app from OpenAI. Users will be able to access xAI’s Grok chatbot on their devices with the app.

The app, which sources said will be launched after xAI’s next funding round, will raise $5 billion. This funding will take the company’s valuation to $50 billion. According to reports, as a reward for his support, Musk has reportedly offered investors  25% of xAI shares. These investors backed his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter.

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