President Takashi Kiryu has shared his plans to slim down Square Enix's lineup of titles.
16.01.2024 - 23:17 / destructoid.com / Takashi Kiryu / Kosuke Okatani / Ai
As reported by VideoGameChronicle, Square Enix confirmed at a recent press event that their upcoming live service game, Foamstars, uses some assets generated by AI. This follows a New Year’s letter from the company’s president, Takashi Kiryu, that stated the company would more aggressively pursue the use of the technology.
VGC asked Foamstars producer Kosuke Okatani about AI, who elaborated on the game’s usage of it. According to him, most of the game was created by humans, but “0.01% or even less” was generated by Midjourney. Specifically, as Square later clarified to VGC, the assets that were created by generative AI are in-game album covers for the game’s music tracks.
Okatani explained: “In this instance, we experimented with Midjourney using simple prompts to produce abstract images. We loved what was created and used them as the final album covers players will see in the game. Everything else was created entirely by our development team.”
The usage of generative AI has been creeping in from all angles despite a variety of different concerns. Among these are worries about hastily generated games flooding the market and squeezing out small developers, the contraction of job opportunities within the industry, the straight-up theft that is central to implementations of the technology, and the impact on the environment from the high energy requirements. It’s a complex subject.
However, it does remind me that Splatoon, a game that Foamstars seems to be trying hard to be, also does album artwork for its songs. Except those are made by real human artists. And it’s just funny to me how this endeavor can be derivative and yet still cut corners in the process. It’s what we get to look forward to.
Foamstars is releasing on PS4 and PS5 on February 6, 2024.
President Takashi Kiryu has shared his plans to slim down Square Enix's lineup of titles.
Square Enix president Takashi Kiryu believes the company needs to diversify its gaming output, but also focus on fewer releases.
Square Enix appears to be on the verge of shaking up its development portfolio. According to its president, we may soon see fewer titles, but a more diverse array of genres coming out of a developer and publisher traditionally known for its massive RPG franchises.
Square Enix president Takashi Kiryu says he wants to diversify the studio's lineup of games by relying less on "strong IPs" like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest.
Japanese publisher Square Enix has revealed that it used generative artificial intelligence to produce some of the artwork in the upcoming Foamstars.
Yesterday, Square Enix announced that its party shooter Foamstars would launch on February 6th for PS4 and PS5. Despite comparisons to Splatoon, it’s received praise for doing different things. Since it’s also out on day one for PlayStation Plus subscribers, it’s almost guaranteed to have a healthy player base initially.
Square Enix has confirmed that upcoming online shooter Foamstars includes AI-generated art.
Square Enix’s Foamstars has received a release date, launching on February 6th for PS4 and PS5. However, since its announcement, the 4v4 party shooter has been compared to Nintendo’s Splatoon, with players spraying foam in arenas and using it to traverse instead of ink.
PlayStation exclusive shooter Foamstars will feature AI-generated artwork, Square Enix has confirmed, with Foamstars producer Kosuke Okatani clarifying to VGC that «in terms of the content of the game, this makes up about 0.01% or even less.»
Foamstars, Square Enix's Splatoon-like 4v4 online party shooter announced last year, is coming next month. The PlayStation exclusive will release February 6 as a day-one launch title on PS Plus, Sony and Square Enix confirmed Tuesday. The game will be available to download for free on PS5 and PS4 as part of the PlayStation Plus Monthly Games lineup for next month, starting February 6 through March 4. Foamstars was announced at a PlayStation Showcase in May last year, showing off soapy shooting and colourful characters, both heavily inspired by Nintendo's Splatoon games. A PS Plus release will likely attract more players to the multiplayer title in its early days.
Foamstars is the next big game coming from Square Enix, which recently announced the game will be launching on February 2 and will be available on PlayStation Plus on the day of release. Unfortunately, that's not everything that was revealed about Foamstars, as the title has come under fire after producer Kosuke Okatani admitted AI was used for some of the game's art.
Various “trends” within the digital space over the last several years have come and gone and caused all sorts of problems along the way. But one problem that persists among certain groups is the plans for using AI not just in writing but also in art. You might recall that the Hollywood strike among writers and actors was partially caused by studios wanting to use AI scripts and pay writers less as a result or use AI to capture a person’s likeness and use them in films without consent. For video games like Foamstars, using AI isn’t “out of bounds” when it comes to art, apparently.