Dead Space creator Glenn Schofield sees gaming industry as 'fractured and battered'

During his keynote address on the opening day of Gamescom Asia

“We need to fix the gaming industry now,” Schofield told a roomful of gaming industry professionals. “It's broken. It's broken, it's broken, and our developers are broken, and they've been living with it for the past few years. We need to get it back to what it was, right? Instead of all this negative stuff.”

The first and most controversial step, according to Schofield, is the gaming industry's widespread acceptance of the use of generative AI as a standard part of its development toolset.

“AI is not going to replace us,” Schofield continued. “It exists to make us faster, better, more efficient. Artificial intelligence is really for all of us. It’s not just for directors and artists, it’s for writers and marketing executives.

“So, I think (game industry) executives, owners, founders… let's start training our employees on AI. Start as soon as possible. Who cares if I'm EA or Activision or Namco or whoever, we should at least work together on training and educating our employees. That's going to be a huge help because I know we're going to start hiring people again.”

Next, Schofield believes investors need to loosen their wallets, start spending more money on game development, and put the right people in charge of each studio.

“Come on, investors and executives, let's stop this madness,” Schofield said. “Do you want to make a AAA game and spend $8 million? You have to find the courage again. If we start putting money into this industry again, we know it will make money.”

“To me, you pick the wrong person to run the team, to run the game, right? In my opinion (you need) a creative person to run it. And then you get people to help do this and do that. That's how I work now, right? I still experience it in some way. I have people helping me now so I can do it 100% or 98% of the time. That’s what these games require. I’ve seen some guys that are picked and they’re really good people, but there’s no way they’re ready to direct a game.”

“So I said, let's start putting money in and doing a better job of due diligence. We know we're going to make money. But we have to make quality games, and we have to get them to the right people.”

Finally, and perhaps most bizarrely, considering that Schofield was delivering the opening keynote at a rival gaming industry show, he's hoping E3 will return.

“Bring E3 back,” Schofield said, to loud applause. “I mean, come on. E3 is the granddaddy of them all. I'll tell you every E3 I've been to has made my games better. I know there's no formula to show (return on investment), (but) every game gets better when you go there. You talk to your friends, you talk to your colleagues, and everyone is excited to help you develop the next generation of technology or show you mechanics. When companies start to step outside of E3, I know that's what's best. Eventually, I started to resist that because it's not an industry that works together, it's a fragmented industry, so there's no E3 anymore.”

Schofield concluded his speech by reiterating that while he fully supports artificial intelligence, the most important aspect of game development is the people making the games, not the machines.

“Remember, creativity is the lifeblood of the industry,” Schofield told developers in attendance. “What about those thoughts? They came from you.”

What do you think of Schofield's plan to “fix” the gaming industry? Sound off in the comments below!

Tristan Ogilvie is a senior video editor at IGN Australia and is currently attending Gamescom Asia x Thailand.