Replacing Developers with AI Is Premature — Former WoW and LoL Lead Says AI Could One Day Speed Up Game Development

Former lead developer for World of Warcraft and League of Legends says replacing people with AI is “slightly premature” — “AI may one day speed up game creation, but not today”

Greg Street, who served as lead systems designer on World of Warcraft (2008–2013) and later as executive producer on Riot Games’ League of Legends MMO until 2023, weighed in on AI’s potential in the games industry.

“AI will eventually speed up game development. But that isn’t happening today. These layoffs are mostly about cutting operating costs and inflating stock prices. In the years ahead, that will leave portfolios hollow.”

He appeared to be responding to the recent mass layoffs at Amazon, the partial wind-down of Amazon Games, and the halt to further work on the MMO New World.

“I feel for my friends at Amazon who tried to keep the MMO dream alive.”

Reflecting on industry-wide cuts, Street added:

“Layoffs happen for many reasons. But when a company claims workers are unnecessary because AI can make games, films, or books today—that’s a bit premature. (AI is performing better with music.)”

In a follow-up, he conceded that AI will soon be able to “generate landscapes or billions of weapon variants,” but said it remains a long way from producing fully coherent, end-to-end narratives.

Source: iXBT.games