Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has given his pitch for helping the gaming world.
Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney thinks the “only solution” for the gaming industry’s problems is “building massive new factories”.
The gaming giant’s CEO has addressed the “severe” difficulties facing developers around the world, with mass layoffs caused by all sorts of reasons, including what companies generally say is a need for restructuring.
This is down to a pandemic boom in gaming, plus increased development cost, longer production cycles, changes in the way people spend their money, and hardware shortages thanks to a rising demand for AI data centres.
Speaking to Edge Magazine, Sweeney said: “It’s an unexpected, severe disruption.
“There’s an unprecedented wave of investment in building AI systems and data centres, based on the belief that they’re going to have a really transformational role in the economy, and the scale of the economic opportunity there means they can outbid the entire entertainment industry for all the components.”
He noted that the gaming industry is “getting the short end of the stick”, noting how “the prices of RAM and storage are quadrupling, and not necessarily stopping there”.
Sweeney suggested the “supply crisis” in the industry could last another three years.
He added: “We should expect there’s just going to be a continual supply crisis for all gaming-relevant hardware for the next three years.
“The only solution, I think, is going to be building massive new factories to meet the world’s capacity demands – and that will happen.”
His comments come months after Epic laid over 1,000 developers in March.
This followed a period where the studio has expanded to support Fortnite’s growth, only for player engagement to drop, leading to roles being cut.
Despite those concerns, and more about the impact of AI, Stephanie Arnette, senior external development manager on Fortnite, has addressed concerns about the impact AI could have on jobs across the industry.
In June, she told a Gamescom Latam panel: “I know everyone’s biggest fear is, ‘Oh my god, AI is going to take all our jobs.’ That’s not our goal. The goal is to make us more efficient.”
According to Arnette, Epic has been experimenting with AI tools internally to help streamline aspects of production, including potential uses in art creation and development workflows. She suggested the technology could reduce the time spent on repetitive or time-consuming tasks, allowing teams to work more efficiently.
She explained: “If the thing that takes you 10 hours to do suddenly doesn’t take you as long, that’s compelling.”
Epic Games boss thinks ‘massive new factories’ is only way to solve industry crisis
