Elon Musk is on a mission to make video games great again!
On November 27, 2024, X (formerly Twitter) owner and billionaire Elon Musk said that his "xAI is going to start an AI game studio to make games great again!" in reply to Dogecoin maker Billy Markus's tweet about "how game developers and game journalism got so ideologically captured."
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
In short, modern AAA titles are more focused on adding more woke elements that make a good game.
Elon Musk is a long-time gamer and one of the best Diablo 4 players. For a long time, he has been talking about DEI and how it is taking over not only the videogame industry but also videogame journalism.
But, things started to heat up when Obsidian Entertainment's upcoming title, Avowed, was found to have Pronouns for characters.
Having pronouns in a fantasy video game is utterly unacceptable https://t.co/h5ISGFBJZT
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 24, 2024
For people who don't know, a preview build of Avowed was given to content creators.
As we got many optimistic take on the game, X user and industry veteran Mark Kern, whom we also know as Grummz, pointed out in a tweet that the character menu in the game featured Pronouns.
To which Elon replied, "Having pronouns in a fantasy video game is utterly unacceptable."
But, Elon's reply didn't sit well with Avowed's Art Director Matt Hansen, who quoted the tweet while also admitting that some of the woke elements that we saw were intentional as he said, "I wanted so badly to make him mad with my game. I can’t believe it actually happened."
Yikes... that dude is still going.
— Smash JT (@SmashJT) November 27, 2024
Yo @Microsoft reel in your @Obsidian team over at @AvowedtheGame before he tanks the entire game and ruins your studio. pic.twitter.com/5kq17mBjr5
Since then, many gamers, content creators, and even former Obsidian Entertainment Director Chris Avellone have shared the videogame industry's many discriminatory practices.
Based on recent news, if you were rejected from an art position at Obsidian in the past few years, call a lawyer - discrimination in hiring, esp for a Microsoft studio, can ensure you don't need to apply for a job ever again.
— Chris Avellone (@ChrisAvellone) November 27, 2024
All these things have finally pushed Elon to make his own videogame studio, to which, he thinks AI is the solution.
The videogame industry is not new to using AI. From mobile to PC and consoles, videogames have been using AI to generate levels, create NPCs, provide in-game guidance, and much more.
What do you think? Is Elon Musk serious about making an xAI based game development studio or was it just big talk?