The use of artificial intelligence combined with small development teams represents a new viable business model for creating new gaming franchises, according to David Gardner, former senior executive at Electronic Arts, in an interview with The Game Business.
At the same time, the expert emphasized that technology cannot compensate for a lack of developer expertise — it only speeds up the outcome, whether good or bad.
According to Gardner, integrating AI into game development theoretically enables much higher efficiency and productivity. This, in turn, allows teams to build successful projects without requiring massive staff numbers at early stages.
“AI and small teams… this is a new business model, at least for new IPs. You enter the market, kickstart the flywheel, build a community, generate revenue from user spending. And only then do you scale. You don’t need a mega team. You bring in more and more AI agents that help make development more productive,” Gardner said.
He stressed that AI is only effective when the development team itself is highly skilled. Investors, he added, will need to carefully filter out weak AI-driven projects, similar to how previous trends like Web3 and VR were evaluated.
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