INSIDER Q&A: JOHN RICCITIELLO, CEO OF VIDEO GAME SOFTWARE COMPANY UNITY, ON AI AND GAMING'S FUTURE

John Riccitiello, the CEO of video game software company Unity, has seen the video game industry evolve and shift during his more than two-decade-long career, beginning in 1997 when he became the head of games giant Electronic Arts.

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Unity Software Inc., was founded in Denmark and is now based in San Francisco. It’s working with Apple to help bring games to its upcoming virtual reality headset, the Vision Pro. Riccitiello recently spoke about how artificial intelligence is transforming how video games are created and played.

WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST TRENDS COMING DOWN THE PIKE IN GAMING?

Riccitiello: I think AI will change gaming in a couple of pretty profound ways. One of them is it’s going to make making games faster, cheaper and better. It’s already happening. I mean, you can use AI already for digital humans and editing environments and all sorts of things that make it faster. It’s also going to be possible to realize experiences that were never possible before.

Q: CAN YOU GIVE SOME EXAMPLES?

Riccitiello: You know “Call of Duty,” you know “Grand Theft Auto,” you know “Candy Crush.” Any of these games, every single thing you see in that game and every line of dialogue, every environment, every lighting effect was coded by somebody anticipating that you would use that. So the perimeter of the game is the content that’s been put on the DVD or on the internet download. There is no more. It is what it is. They can add to it over time by patching games and adding levels. “Candy Crush” shipped with like 50 and now it’s what? 

A: 10,000 I think.