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Based in 2004, Virtuos has grown into a giant firm in terms of the manufacturing of video games. As an exterior developer, Virtuos’ group of three,800 skilled recreation devs can complement the groups at recreation studios and publishers as they end their video games.
The Singapore-based firm has a giant presence in Asia and it has labored with almost the entire prime 25 leisure firms on this planet, with both work on video or recreation content material.
I’ve caught up with Virtuos CEO Gilles Langourieux a number of instances in recent times — together with final February — to get entry to his distinctive perspective on the worldwide image of creating video games.
I not too long ago caught up with him on the Tokyo Recreation Present, the place the corporate confirmed off its work on the remake Metallic Gear Strong: Snake Eater. We talked about all the things from the state of the sport jobs market to using AI in making video games.
Right here’s an edited transcript of our interview.
Gilles Langourieux: A 20-year-old recreation remade in Unreal 5. It’s a giant deal for us to have the ability to take such a traditional recreation and produce it to fashionable requirements.
GamesBeat: That was a really lengthy recreation.
Langourieux: Very. That is the place we shine. If you wish to do it in an inexpensive time, you want to have the ability to line up a giant group, each engineers and artists.
GamesBeat: Does Snake Eater wind up being certainly one of your largest initiatives?
Langourieux: Sure. A whole bunch of individuals. Between 200 and 300. It was a three-year undertaking.
GamesBeat: These remakes could also be excellent for this a part of the {industry}, the exterior improvement studios.
Langourieux: They’re a big a part of the enterprise. Not everybody can do them. If I take a look at what we’re doing within the recreation division, it may be a bit greater than a 3rd of our income. The remainder comes from co-development engagements, the place we work aspect by aspect with the consumer. A whole lot of studios can do co-development, however not so many can do remakes of huge titles.
GamesBeat: Is it actually beginning over from the bottom up?
Langourieux: Proper. There’s not rather a lot we will re-use.
GamesBeat: Competing for one thing like that, what’s that course of like? Do you must have already labored with the proprietor, like Konami on this case?
Langourieux: We’re in Japan proper now. It’s good to set up credibility. We began working with Japan 15 years in the past. We now have a small group right here. A lot of the work was achieved by the China studio, however there’s proximity. It’s straightforward for us to go to, and vice versa. The complete enterprise with Japan has been constructed from China. We began with Sq. Enix. We did lots of the Remaining Fantasy remasters – X, XII, XIII – for contemporary platforms. We shipped Nier Automata on Swap. We simply shipped Kingdom Hearts on PC. You construct that fame for delivering high quality on time. Then, when somebody like Konami has a giant difficult undertaking, we’re one of many first names they’ll name up. I feel we’re the one title. There aren’t that many names.
It’s good to have a group that speaks Japanese. We now have a variety of Japanese producers. A studio in Europe attempting to work with Konami could be tougher. They’ve tried. It’s tough.
GamesBeat: When is that this popping out?
Langourieux: That’s not introduced but. My guess is subsequent yr, however don’t quote me on that. Dune Awakening is a extra classical co-development for us, a smaller group working over a smaller time frame. We’re doing a smaller proportion of the title.
GamesBeat: How do you view the state of the {industry}? Are the economically robust instances beginning to go behind us?
Langourieux: I’m inspired by a few issues. After I take a look at our shoppers’ well being, nearly all of them had a very good 2023 and a very good first half of 2024. There was development for almost all of them. You have got a variety of remoted circumstances which can be problematic. A pair in Europe, a pair in Japan. However the larger gamers, on common, appear to be doing okay. We appeared on the information. The highest 20, their development fee might be greater than double the expansion fee of the {industry}. That appears to point that focus is continuous. The opposite factor we see is that income is coming an increasing number of from the larger on-line titles.
Focus of larger titles means smaller and medium-sized video games are squeezed out. That is the place a few of the layoffs are coming from. No person’s counting the addition of head depend on the profitable studios. Recreation Science, Pocketpair, I assure you they’re not shedding. They’re hiring folks. The web may not be as unhealthy so far as the employment state of affairs. You don’t have solely losers. There are additionally winners. They’ve huge, profitable titles they usually’re well-positioned in a distinct segment. They’re using. They’re giving us work too.
This yr will likely be a yr of development for us, revenue-wise, headcount-wise. I’m not saying it’s straightforward. We now have to mobilize our whole enterprise improvement group globally to seek out the fitting initiatives. It’s harder to seek out initiatives than earlier than. However I don’t suppose anybody ought to say that the {industry} shouldn’t be doing effectively. There are nonetheless alternatives. It may speed up subsequent yr. New {hardware}, giant put in bases. PC continues to be rising, particularly in rising international locations. Among the cellular firms will have the ability to do higher now that they’ve turned a nook on laws. Some very huge titles are on the horizon. Now there’s yet one more, with Murderer’s Creed.
GamesBeat: I’ve a little bit of quantitative information now. The LinkedIn man, Amir Satvat, who posts about folks on the lookout for work, he’s gotten excellent at scraping the online for recreation jobs. Now he’s been aggregating associated information. He estimates 275,000 folks work within the recreation {industry} worldwide. There have been 14,000 open jobs just a few months in the past, and 12,000 open now. Within the final month or so issues have slipped a bit. (And it improved some too since then). They had been enhancing to a degree the place he thought hiring could be larger than firing on a 60-month trailing foundation, beginning in September. That was his estimate of the turning level. Now he’s pushed that to December, due to Microsoft’s layoffs.
Langourieux: I might problem him a bit on China. Individuals taking a look at information within the west normally underestimate China.
GamesBeat: He did a listing of the highest 10 cities with job openings, and none of them had been within the U.S. The faster-growing areas, the place they’re hiring extra folks, are all world wide.
Langourieux: I feel there’s going to be a displacement. We’ve been very fortunate, as a result of for the final 30 years we’ve primarily had double-digit development. A lot of the profitable studios haven’t needed to problem the best way they do issues. They’ve not needed to search for efficiencies. Now it’s a bit harder, as a result of there’s much less development. They’re all on the lookout for efficiencies. Lots of them are making layoffs. These laid-off folks find yourself working for firms like us. You’re nonetheless going to have giant productions needing extra folks. The pliability has to come back from someplace. It can come from us.
There will likely be a displacement, with much less inner jobs at studios. Studios will get a bit extra lean. That’s good for creativity, as a result of smaller groups can iterate sooner. Extra firms like us will assist deliver further capability and extra secure jobs. When one undertaking is over we will transition folks to a different undertaking extra simply than our shoppers.
GamesBeat: How many individuals do you might have now?
Langourieux: We’re near 4,000. About 3,800. We’re rising a bit. It’s not an atmosphere the place we need to develop very aggressively, however a bit of bit. We simply added a studio within the U.Ok., Third Form Video games, in Leamington Spa.
GamesBeat: Do you are likely to agree that issues are beginning to get extra visibly higher?
Langourieux: There’s development nonetheless. We now have two divisions, artwork and recreation. The artwork pipeline could be very full. That division tends to be occupied by the larger video games, producing content material for the subsequent iteration. These huge video games that dominate the income are wholesome. The sport division works extra on medium-sized and smaller video games. That’s the place it’s nonetheless a bit extra clunky. It hasn’t absolutely restarted but.
GamesBeat: The Digital Arts investor name had an fascinating line. For his or her school soccer recreation, they needed to create 11,000 likenesses of gamers in three months. They had been in a position to try this as a result of they used AI. Does that sound regular but to you?
Langourieux: I’ve seen EA spend money on new applied sciences to permit them to provide their annual iterations sooner and sooner at a top quality degree. It’s very in step with the hassle we’ve seen from them. Due to the best way likenesses are created–you apply pictures to a 3D mesh. AI is excellent at manipulating 2D. They’ll do a very good job with that. It’s a query of the way you remodel video and photograph reference into the fitting mixture of 3D and textures. We used to try this manually. It’s very time-consuming. You at all times have points with totally different angles. I can see AI doing it very effectively, that mapping.
The extra fascinating a part of their speak was the place they defined how they see AI bringing new varieties of gameplay. That is the place the large–once more, we have a tendency to speak an excessive amount of concerning the adverse stuff and never a lot concerning the optimistic. We discuss how AI would possibly minimize jobs and whatnot, or break IP. However the true alternative is elsewhere. It’s in altering recreation content material and recreation experiences. We hold speaking about NPCs, characters. Sooner or later we’ll not be coping with NPCs. We’ll be coping with buddies and companions and enemies. The relationships will likely be a lot extra sensible. That’s the place I see AI taking us. EA made it clear that that’s the place they need to go.
I’m simplifying, however the web introduced us multiplayer video games. Cellular introduced us video games on the go. AI can deliver us a brand new kind of non-public gaming expertise. Far more plausible, far more partaking. It’s not concerning the manufacturing time we save. It’s extra a couple of new degree of engagement that will likely be attainable.
GamesBeat: How do you prepare for that?
Langourieux: You take a look at all the things that’s on the market. You experiment. You search alternatives to collaborate with shoppers on pilots. It’s not going to occur in a single day.
GamesBeat: I nonetheless see new AI firms coming to me about merchandise or funding each week. Not fairly day-after-day, however there’s nonetheless numerous them arising.
Langourieux: We now have a backlog of about 100 totally different options to check. We now have a variety of options initiatives the place we’re in command of the content material. We use these initiatives to check concepts, see what works and what doesn’t. The {industry} wants a brand new expertise wave if we need to speed up development once more. We have to deliver one thing new. Not simply larger high-definition graphics. The place is the novelty going to come back from? I feel it’s AI. Perhaps haptics.
GamesBeat: It seems like, earlier than we get new consoles, we must always get to someplace the place these consoles could make use of AI. In the event that they’re going to load the consoles up with 10 instances extra AI processing energy, there must be one thing for that to do.
Langourieux: The consoles will grow to be much less related, as a result of experiences are going to be streamed.
GamesBeat: Should you’re Microsoft with Flight Simulator, that’s already the reply.
Langourieux: Among the issues we’re speaking about are already taking place on a small scale. Flight Simulator is creating a way more plausible world because of AI. Sweet Crush is delivering personalized video games primarily based on AI. As we pull the thread longer, it’ll attain all the best way to extra complicated video games.
GamesBeat: I can’t consider what else I might put in a brand new recreation console. Do you want 8K? What else may we do with the expertise proper now?
Langourieux: I discover it very fascinating that we’re able to making video games for blind folks and deaf folks. If we will do that, we’d have some adjustments to the interface, the best way we work together with video games. VR didn’t fairly succeed as a result of we’re restricted in how we will management video games in a 3D area. Microsoft had Kinect, and that didn’t fairly work both. However if you happen to put collectively the ability of AI, the ability of the cloud, and a few new gadgets, we’d arrive at a brand new interface. It’s been too lengthy. We’ve been taking part in with a display, a keyboard, and a joystick for too lengthy.
GamesBeat: Console makers are confronted with these selections about what to incorporate and never embrace within the subsequent technology. They must lock it in just a few years earlier than they go to manufacturing. I’m positive Nintendo is already locked in on what they’re going to do. Perhaps Sony and Microsoft nonetheless have a while to determine. The fascinating factor the Flight Simulator guys stated is that in 2020, they made their guess that the subsequent recreation could be all cloud. I feel they put lower than 50 gigs in your machine now. There’s some native processing, but it surely’s largely streamed from the cloud. The cloud developed so quick that it’s doable now. They didn’t have to fret about that shift. They nonetheless had 800 folks engaged on it, but it surely was unfold out numerous issues.
Langourieux: We’re not a centerpiece. A studio like Asobo in France is extra of a centerpiece. However we’re offering some parts to them. It’s a large undertaking for us. We’re nonetheless engaged on it as we communicate.
GamesBeat: I don’t know the way a lot you see different video games utilizing expertise like that.
Langourieux: We’re ready to see extra fantasy video games, extra stylized video games undertake comparable expertise. It’s not restricted by a small variety of characters displayed on the display, a small variety of dialogue strains, a restricted variety of behaviors NPCs can enact. However I feel we’re nonetheless a few years out.
GamesBeat: Do you must construct a specialty or rent otherwise to cope with that?
Langourieux: We’re going to must work otherwise. I don’t know if the present engines can do that. Maybe there may be one other technology of engines, coupled with individuals who have realized to create content material otherwise. That’s why I say it’s in all probability a few years out.
If we’re speaking about find out how to create characters who’re plausible actors–they discuss brokers within the AI world. In our video games I don’t suppose we’ll have brokers, however let’s say actors. You can have an organization like Epic embedding, within the subsequent technology of their engine, the flexibility to combine and program extraordinarily plausible actors with infinite skills to work together with you. We’ll want character designers who know find out how to direct these actors. Path will likely be totally different from merely modeling the characters and writing a script for them.
GamesBeat: It feels like a brand new technology of recreation engines, however is {that a} heavy elevate for them? Or is it a lighter elevate, as a result of they’re simply bringing in instruments which can be created elsewhere?
Langourieux: I don’t suppose it’s trivial. We’re used to manipulating objects. AI could make these objects extra clever. How will we direct that intelligence?
GamesBeat: Would you might have any prediction on the character of the {industry}’s comeback? Did we minimize too many individuals and go away a gap within the roadmaps of numerous recreation firms, the place they don’t have sufficient video games coming? Do we’ve got a expertise warfare that’s going to start out up as soon as we return to extra hiring than firing?
Langourieux: I don’t suppose the difficulty is that we don’t have sufficient content material. We are able to agree that there’s sufficient content material to please most avid gamers. They’ve far more video games on their backlog than they will play with the time they’ve. What we may be in need of is new experiences. Know-how is simply making incremental variations, not a serious leap. We want a serious leap to occur. I feel it’s a few years, as I say, earlier than the mixture of AI, cloud, haptics, possibly one thing else–earlier than it creates a leap between the kind of video games we provide and the kind of video games which can be accessible at the moment. That’s when the subsequent wave will begin.
Within the meantime it is going to be extra about displacement between the video games that proceed to achieve success and get larger and greater, and the smaller ones that may’t discover area anymore.
GamesBeat: Do you suppose there’s going to be a break between the world earlier than Grand Theft Auto VI and the world after? Is {that a} pivotal recreation that may have numerous affect on the remainder of the {industry}?
Langourieux: I don’t suppose so. A part of me thinks that everytime you put super expectations on one thing, it tends to disappoint. You don’t have just one kind of gamer. Not everybody performs on console or PC. There’s no motive to deal with that exact title’s launch. There will likely be different profitable video games. There are lots of different platforms the place that title gained’t have an impact.
GamesBeat: The place do you suppose the younger recreation builders, the people who find themselves learning to grow to be recreation builders, must put their energies?
Langourieux: They completely need to perceive what’s taking place with AI. It will be an enormous mistake to underestimate the scale of the wave or take into account it soiled. Sure, there are points at the moment, however these points will likely be overcome. If I’m an artist or a programmer or a designer popping out of faculty, I need to be skilled, or prepare myself, on what AI can do at the moment and what AI will have the ability to do tomorrow. I need to begin utilizing these instruments. That will permit me to overhaul older artists, designers, or programmers who haven’t realized these expertise and gained’t be ready to direct AI actors like we’ll be placing in video games.
Utilizing AI to create new stuff–that youthful technology will have the ability to do it. The folks beginning on the floor flooring, we’ll arm these folks with AI-based creation capabilities. What they will create inside issues like Roblox or Fortnite goes to be very spectacular. People are getting older. We now have an increasing number of free time. There’s no nation the place there isn’t a rise within the variety of gadgets that may help video games. Even the poorest international locations have a rise in PCs and smartphones. Extra free time, extra gadgets. That’s going to translate into extra video games and extra time spent taking part in video games.
The one issue is that we will’t promote the identical stuff yr after yr. We have to hold on the lookout for innovation, methods to make issues new and totally different.
GamesBeat: What do you concentrate on locations just like the Center East, the place they’re attempting to speed up the expansion of their expertise base?
Langourieux: I’m not very acquainted with the Center East, however on that query, since we’re in Tokyo proper now, proper subsequent to China, it’s fascinating to see Chinese language builders turning into very profitable in recreation genres that had been created in Japan. The Chinese language builders are placing in additional effort, extra modernity, and attaining world success. You have got a wave of expertise in China that advantages from a youthful expertise pool than Japan. That’s been very fascinating. That, I feel, goes to speed up with the success of video games like Genshin Affect and Black Fantasy. That’s why we wished to have you ever come to China. You’d be stunned.
GamesBeat: Rising international locations have extra alternatives. That’s an opportunity to leapfrog.
Langourieux: They’re approaching with a youthful thoughts, a contemporary thoughts. They need content material that’s extra culturally suited to their viewers. Nexon talks a couple of idea I like rather a lot, which is hyper-localization. It’s the flexibility, in an internet recreation, to regulate the content material not only for language, however occasions, challenges, timing that matches what totally different teams of gamers need. There’s numerous development to be discovered for current recreation firms by going after these extra numerous teams of gamers, notably in rising international locations.
We’ve talked earlier than about how Garena is ready to dominate southeast Asia, as a result of they customise a recreation that’s comparatively customary in its base kind, Free Hearth–they actually customise the content material to go well with every viewers in Indonesia, within the Philippines, in Vietnam. Should you take the Garena mannequin, you possibly can see that very same mannequin taking place within the Center East or in Latin America. There’s no motive why not. Perhaps a few of the American and Japanese publishers will understand the significance there and go in that course, like Nexon is already doing.