"Games are too expensive to develop": GTA San Andreas developer talks about AI art in games

While the creative industry is polarized on the use of AI, a developer of GTA San Andreas, Obbe Vermeij (X/@ObbeVermeij), recently shared a post expressing his views on integrating the technology in games. Talking about how it can help the industry, he stated:

“Games are too expensive to develop and take too long. This is why publishers won’t take a chance on an original idea end we end up with the same game over and over.”

Obbe Vermeij was the Technical Director at Rockstar North (DMA Design), and he worked on various Grand Theft Auto titles, including GTA San Andreas, GTA 3, Vice City, Liberty City Stories, Vice City Stories, Grand Theft Auto 4, The Lost and Damned, and Chinatown Wars.

The former GTA developer further stated that generating art for AAA games takes plenty of effort. Providing some examples, he stated that the following things could be done using artificial intelligence:

“Building a huge map with back alleys that most players will never see. Rigging and animating hundreds of characters. Animating crowds in cut scenes. Fixing texture joints. Building low LOD and collision meshes. Recording voices for NPCs.”

The GTA San Andreas developer again said that expecting everything in-game to be created by humans is adverse for the creators. His exact words were:

“If we insist every pixel is 100% human generated we’re stifling creativity, not promoting it.”

Some X users agreed with Obbe Vermeij’s statement saying that the use of artificial intelligence should be normalized.

Gaming fans want studios to use artificial intelligence for various creative works (Images via X)

On the other hand, some also debated the GTA San Andreas developer’s suggestions, saying that the use of artificial intelligence would create ethical issues.

Gaming fans share their concerns over the use of artificial intelligence in video games (Images via X)

Suggesting a balance between human creation and AI-generated content, an X user named Mazen (Mithrie) Turkmani (X/@MithrieTV) commented:

“For sure there needs to be a balance. I could not finish my work each day without AI. I understand the concern though with AI when some people feel their work is being copied without permission or compensation.”

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Rockstar removes GTA Trilogy DE from Netflix, except GTA San Andreas

On December 13, 2024, Rockstar Games removed two of the titles of the Grand Theft Auto Trilogy Definitive Editon from Netflix — Grand Theft Auto 3 Definitive Edition and Grand Theft Auto Vice City Definitive Edition.

However, the GTA San Andreas Definitive Edition Netflix version is still intact and can be accessed with an active Netflix subscription. It is one of the most popular titles from the 2D Universe of the Grand Theft Auto series and continues to remain in the top charts.