The PlayStation earnings report has some uncomfortable bombshells

In case you missed it — which is completely understandable if you're not a Sony shareholder — PlayStation put out another earnings report today. While these documents often go overlooked, which is understandable as they're not really meant for the general public, in the game industry they often contain exciting insider info and a sense of what to expect from the future of any given company.

With that in mind, the future of PlayStation doesn't look… excellent. There are several bombshells in here, and the most significant is probably the fact that the inevitable PlayStation 6 doesn't actually have a launch window yet. In my opinion, that's wise: the ravenous AI industry and the memory shortage it's caused are driving up the cost of consumer computing, and for many it feels like this current generation has barely scratched the surface. Putting the next one off for a few more years and releasing more games that actually take full advantage of the PS5 feels like a win for everyone involved, consumers especially.

There's also the quiet admission that Destiny studio Bungie may not have been worth the money Sony paid for it, as its internal valuation has plummeted by 800 million dollars in the wake of Marathon's poor performance. (Which is a shame, because I really liked Marathon.)

Most concerning of all, though, is PlayStation embracing AI even as Xbox steps away from it. According to Variety, a solid chunk of the actual presentation focused on the ways in which PlayStation is going to work AI into future titles:

"Our goal is always to be the best place to play and the best place to publish," Nishino said. "We see AI as a powerful tool to help us in this mission."

Nishino described a broad internal push at PlayStation's first-party studios, where developers are automating repetitive workflows, improving software engineering productivity and accelerating quality assurance, 3D modeling and animation. Among the tools in use is one called Mockingbird, which generates facial animations from performance capture data in a fraction of the time previously required. Teams at Naughty Dog and San Diego Studio have adopted the tool, including on released titles. A separate AI-driven hair animation tool converts video footage of real hairstyles into strand-level 3D models, dramatically reducing what had been a labor-intensive process.

This feels more like traditional machine learning than generative AI of the sort that's clogging up your grandpa's Facebook feed. If these tools really do reduce development time and allow those resources to be allocated to more creative aspects of game development, then awesome — but something tells me they might just be used as justification to fire even more developers instead.