cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/49263187

Tim Sweeney claims it’s a “Scarlet Letter” which makes players “try to kill the game”

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has criticised rival Valve for forcing studios to disclose when they use AI in game development.

Epic recently showed how it was integrating AI into Unreal Engine 6.

Time Sweeney said:

“If you want to launch a game, and get it as widely publicized as possible, you’ve got to put it on Steam so people can wish list it, and if you want to play it on Steam, then you have to get this Scarlet Letter of AI attached to your product, and now there is a hater community trying to kill the game.

“I think it’s really irresponsible of Valve. They shouldn’t do it, because it makes it much, much, much harder for a game developer to have a chance of success. You have to choose from either not using tools that can make you way more productive, and probably failing due to competition that does.”

Which is totally ignoring the factor that the user should know about the purchase it makes and be able to decide for themselves. Transparency for the player is not a bad thing.

  • Kirp123@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    227
    ·
    28 days ago

    Fuck you Tim Sweeney. Valve is right for putting that info up so people can make informed purchases.

      • Omega_Jimes@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        28 days ago

        I mean, they’ve been around for 35 years and they do something like 5 billion USD a year in revenue. I think they’re going to be fine.

        I don’t necessarily want this iteration of Epic to be fine, but I’m sure they will be

  • Telorand@reddthat.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    109
    ·
    28 days ago

    And this, Tim, is why I spend most of my money at Steam.

    This may shock you, but proudly parading that you want to fuck over consumers at every opportunity is not good incentive.

    • thingsiplay@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      22
      ·
      28 days ago

      They give you lot of reasons to. For me it was a personal thing when I really started to hate Epic Games. 2019 Epic purchased the studio of Rocket League, when the game was in a hype phase and I played and enjoyed it very much on my Linux system. Shortly after they removed the Linux support for the game and then they also removed it from Steam as well. Due to an update of the game it was no longer viable to support it on Linux they said.

      This really really bugged me on a personal level. Today I think the game is playable on Linux, I don’t know exactly. But it requires Epic Games Launcher and probably account on them. To me the game is dead. And Epic killed it (for me).

      • slacktoid@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        edit-2
        28 days ago

        Yes! This is exactly why I too hate epic. They could throw a free game at me, I’d still buy it on steam. I have no intention of going where I’m not wanted.

        And I was just getting good at rocket league

    • olympicyes@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      28 days ago

      Sweeney doesn’t like games, he’s just into programming and game engines. That might help the disconnect between him and gamers.

  • geekwithsoul@piefed.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    46
    ·
    28 days ago

    The best thing about Tim Sweeney is that he consistently has the most wrong take on any issue. He’s like the Lou Gehrig of being an idiot.

  • Soup@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    44
    ·
    27 days ago

    Super strong “If I told you who I really was you’d never have slept with me!” energy.

    It’s called consent. If people wouldn’t want to engage with the content unless they were misled in some way then that amounts to manipulation and a violation of trust. Looks like Epic Games just told the whole world that they would lie to their customers if they felt like the truth would give them too much choice.

    Fuck ‘em.

  • tabular@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    42
    ·
    edit-2
    28 days ago

    “We must do X at any cost to the user because others will do it and get the money”

    This mentality has driven the games industry to become psychologically manipulative, subscription battleass and absolutely proprietary.

    Maybe the irresponsibility is in ourselves for giving those game companies money.

  • binux@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    36
    ·
    28 days ago

    Bitch-boy CEO whining about rival company that epitomizes everything he doesn’t have at every chance he gets, very typical behaviour just carry on

  • Kissaki@feddit.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    30
    ·
    27 days ago

    Sugar labels on food didn’t stop their sales 🤷

    I don’t see it. Disclosure is always a good thing.

    Some people care, and they should have the option to choose. Not be misled, ignored, or lied to.

  • Lemmayng@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    26
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    28 days ago

    Tim Sweeney, the pedophile (protector) who insists that pedophiles aren’t using Roblox to commit pedophilic crimes by preying on minors? That Tim Sweeney?

    • db2@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      19
      ·
      28 days ago

      He also says that stopping ai generated csam is “gatekeeping”.

      Whenever I say this his apologists magically appear.

      • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        27 days ago

        …gatekerping csam? Or gatekeeping AI?

        Because both are rediculous statements, but for entirely different reasons.

  • chameleon@fedia.io
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    21
    ·
    28 days ago

    Another choice quote from the original IGN interview that this is from:

    Sweeney: […] The only way that we can hope for new games coming into the market to be able to succeed when there’s so much Metcalfe’s Law at play and so many captive audiences in the really big games – you know, Fortnite, Roblox, PUBG Mobile, and a few other really huge ones – it’s got to be that those games get momentum by connecting to the economies in other games. I think that can really reinvigorate the market if people are constantly looking to new games and sources of new items that they can earn everywhere and be able to really easily move together with their friends.

    Guy got talked into the whole blockchain NFT crap so hard that he’s still trying to make it happen, as if it was ever a desirable thing that the best way to get some kind of gear or cool cosmetics in game A involves playing game B instead.

    • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      28 days ago

      If I’m understanding his comment, it doesn’t make sense at all. He wants people to discover new games…by playing the same big 4 games that everybody already plays, and aren’t unknown.

      What?

      I don’t even know where to start, to the point that I’m assuming I’m missing something here. Thats how little sense it makes. I’m at a point where the only logical conclusion is that I’m misunderstanding his statement.

      Because otherwise…where do you even go from there? If you heard this guy saying these things on the bus, you’d just assume he’s mentally unwell.

      • Sergius@programming.dev
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        28 days ago

        He saw how big Roblox market share was and decided that he wanted it. That’s why Epic is integrating UE6 into the Fortnite ecosystem. All so he could collect his 63% from each sale (potentially more with UE6 fees). It’s not about making new games easier to find, it’s about becoming monopoly.

  • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
    cake
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    22
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    27 days ago

    So they can’t not use AI because they’ll lose out to studios that do (not sure about that one but whatever) but if they do use AI no one will buy the game.

    Pick one

  • tabular@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    20
    ·
    28 days ago

    “Think of the game-devs needing to make money” says a fat cat talking about a tool forged from game-dev’s labour without compensation and disregarding any social contracts (i.e. copyleft software licenses).

    • justOnePersistentKbinPlease@fedia.io
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      28 days ago

      “Think of the game devs needing to make money”

      Says the former dev whose biggest success, Unreal Tournament, had little to do with Epic itself.

      1. Digital Extremes made the weapons and many of the default maps.
      2. Fan mods made most of the success of the first three games.

      And Fortnite started as a Pubg clone.

      • tortina_original@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        28 days ago

        Well, Fortnite started as Fortnite: Save the world, which is still alive and kicking. Battle Royale is the trash they made later.