Prepare for AI’s Complete Disruption

Artificial intelligence is on the cusp of reshaping the gaming landscape, potentially impacting billions of players and the very fabric of game development, according to Min-Liang Tan, CEO and co-founder of gaming firm Razer. Tan envisions a future where AI’s pervasive influence spans from streamlining development processes to providing gamers with unprecedented tools and insights.

“For us at Razer, the way we see it is that AI is going to completely disrupt everything, or change everything in gaming,” Tan stated during an interview.

The gaming sector’s significant economic impact is undeniable with an estimated 3.6 billion players globally generating nearly $189 billion in annual revenue.

“Game developers will now be able to use AI tools, and then you’ve got game publishers that will now distribute, market new games with AI tools … For gamers, the AI tools will be able to change things, in terms of the way they play,” Tan explained at Singapore’s SWITCH conference. This perspective highlights the potential for AI to enhance various facets of the gaming ecosystem, from creation to marketing and gameplay.

Razer, a prominent name in gaming hardware, has unveiled Game Co-AI, an innovative tool utilizing computer vision to analyze gamer behavior and provide tailored guidance for completing quests and overcoming challenges. By leveraging data from public APIs, this tool aims to offer personalized insights and assistance to players. A beta version of Game Co-AI is slated for release “later in 2025.”

The application of AI within esports, a rapidly growing segment of the gaming world, has ignited debate, particularly regarding competitive integrity.

“We will not have AI running, I think, during a game itself, but what about at the point of time of training?” Tan said. Despite concerns about real-time AI assistance during matches, there is growing interest in using AI to coach aspiring esports professionals. “There’s a lot of excitement in respect of this. The opportunities are limitless,” Tan added, suggesting a focus on AI as a training and development tool rather than an in-game advantage.

Beyond player assistance, Tan emphasizes AI’s potential to revolutionize game development by automating bug detection and resolution.

Traditionally, game testing involved “a whole bunch of people sitting in a room,” manually identifying bugs. Razer is currently developing an AI QA Companion, designed to autonomously identify, log, and soon, suggest fixes for software bugs. This tool promises to drastically reduce the time and resources required for quality assurance within the game development lifecycle.

“[QA] is about 20% to 30% of the [development] costs, it takes up about 30% of the time,” Tan stated, highlighting the significant cost and time savings that widespread adoption of AI-powered QA tools could deliver.

While the broad implications of AI are increasingly apparent across various industries, differing opinions persist regarding its potential in gaming.

Strauss Zelnick, CEO of video game publisher Take-Two Interactive, recently expressed skepticism about AI’s capacity to fully replicate the creativity and ingenuity of human game developers.

Looking ahead, Tan projects significant advancements in AI-driven game development. “I think we will be talking about some of the new, exciting games that have been built with AI, and how we see the future from that. Maybe we might see one or two major hit games,” he speculated.

While traditionally game development requires large teams and substantial financial investment, AI promises to empower smaller groups of developers to create compelling gaming experiences. Instead of displacing human workers, Tan argues that AI will primarily automate “tedious” tasks, freeing up developers to focus on creative aspects. “The human creativity still needs to be there,” he emphasized.

The integration of AI into the gaming industry could also have far-reaching implications beyond the sector. Tan suggests that gaming’s adoption of AI methodologies could “spawn multiple other new industries.”

“A lot of what’s happening in the tech industry was born from gaming, and I believe that a lot of what will happen for AI will also be born from AI gaming,” he concluded.

Founded in 2005 by Tan and Robert Krakoff, Razer rose to prominence with the Boomslang gaming mouse. “For a gamer, the mouse is everything. It’s an extension of your arm,” Tan said. “The more precise your mouse is, the more likely you are going to be able to get frags,” he said, referring to the “kills” made in first-person shooter games.

Headquartered in Singapore and Irvine, California, the company expanded globally. Razer went public in 2017, listing on the Hong Kong stock exchange, before going private again in 2022, marking a significant chapter in the company’s growth trajectory.