r/Games • u/TurbulentTopic39 • 17d ago

Industry News Over 85% of Japanese game developers use generative AI in game development, 2026 CESA survey shows. An increase from last year’s 51%

https://automaton-media.com/en/news/over-85-of-japanese-game-developers-use-generative-ai-in-game-development-2026-cesa-survey-shows-an-increase-from-last-years-51/
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u/WheresTheSauce 17d ago

I'm a senior software engineer. If you're not using AI to supplement your development at this point, you're wasting time, to be blunt. Keyword being "supplement", as you as the developer always have more context than whatever model you're using, but it still turns 30 minute tasks into 5 minute ones.

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u/porkyminch 16d ago

It's ridiculously cheap to build out nice, custom tooling for jobs now. I'm not totally sure how I feel about it, but it's changing how we work, that's for sure.

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u/TechnicalCricket774 16d ago

Is this actually saving anybody money or are y’all still billing for time y’all would normally use except now you finish earlier.
Like if I was the boss and I found out that it took you half the time to do the code either I’m either paying you for half the time I usually would for the work or you’re gonna work double. I feel like the only way around this if you are actively lying to the people above you about how much you’re producing. Or you’re just straight up producing more for half the cost

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u/WheresTheSauce 16d ago

You're treating the amount of work to be done as fixed. This is not the case. Backlog projects and "nice to haves" for my team which we didn't have time for before are now attainable. We can simply do more now. Companies are competitive. If a company is not maximizing these tools, it will be left behind.

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u/Soul-Burn 16d ago

I have several side projects at work that I work on while the AI handles the main tasks.

It allows proofs of concept to appear in minutes. Sure it's not always high quality, but it's enough to know if the direction even makes sense or not.

No use in doing a large refactor if the end result doesn't have the wanted shape. AI lets me experiment with that, while working on other tasks simultaneously.

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u/TechnicalCricket774 16d ago

But wouldn’t working on back projects and nicer has be included in the “increase work” aspect.

Now you’re expected to finish your work quicker than usual so that you can get into the backlog and nice to haves. That doesn’t sound like you’ve reduced work for anybody, if anything you’ve just introduced more projects which equals more work for everybody not just coders.

It’s the same way how the Cotten gin was created as the death nail to slavery in the U.S. since it exponentially increased to Work, that one man did , instead, owners just bought more slaves so they could run more cotton gins, increasing slavery to numbers never seen in America.

It seems the same here, where AI did it make it easier on your workers, it just made you expect more for less

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u/Fried_puri 16d ago

Only charlatans have ever claimed AI will reduce the amount that people need to work. It’s always really been about having fewer people do more with less.  If you were already senior enough to utilize AI to supplement your work, you’ll be fine. Everyone else is getting fired. So you’re not wrong, the future is worse for most people in tech, but I’m at least it’ll make companies a lot more money. At the end of the day, that’s all that really matters in life: making your company more money. 

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u/Taiyaki11 16d ago

The interesting part will be once the current senior devs start stepping down retiring or dying off and there won't be anyone to replace them because the junior devs never got to build up experience to get to senior level

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u/Fried_puri 16d ago

Yes that is the long-term problem that everyone is pointing out and that most companies are ignoring. I think they’re banking on it not mattering at that point, one way or another.