The wealthiest man in the world and CEO of multiple corporations wants his own game studio because too many corporations own game studios.
It’s no secret that Elon Musk is an avid video game fan, having shared his own Elden Ring build and made bold, though dubious, claims to be one of the best Diablo 4 and Quake players in the whole world.
Lately, it appears he’s no longer content with just playing games and wants a hand in making them, too. Or rather, he wants a hand in telling an AI to make them.
In response to someone on X complaining about how games companies have been ‘ideologically captured,’ Musk pledged to set up a dedicated games studio under his AI company xAI.
Ironically, Musk seems to be doing this because there are ‘too many game studios that are owned by massive corporations.’ Which seems a little rich for a man who is CEO of multiple massive corporations.
What isn’t a little rich is Musk himself. He’s hardly a champion for the little people, since he’s the wealthiest man in the world with an estimated net worth of $314 billion (about £248 billion). So, any studio he opens wouldn’t be some small indie start-up.
Who knew a multi-billionaire that works for the US government would be so anti-corporation? (X)
While Musk certainly has the finances to open a games studio, actually running it is another matter entirely. Any game developer can tell you that even shipping a game is a miracle, let alone it selling well.
Even if Musk intends on solely relying on AI to pump out games (which is inherently a bad idea), he still needs to hire talented people familiar with game development if he wants the products to be of high quality and appealing to prospective customers.
That’s assuming the studio actually opens. So far, this is just a promise that Musk isn’t guaranteed to follow through on. Plus, you’d think he’d be too busy to operate a games studio when he’s supposed to be running X, SpaceX, and Tesla.
There’s also his new government job under Donald Trump. Then again, one of the reasons Trump gave Musk a new job is because, in his own words, ‘[Musk is] not very busy.’
Arguably the weirdest thing about all this is the insinuation games aren’t great anymore. The industry has many problems – rampant layoffs, increased consolidation, lack of preservation – but the quality of the games themselves isn’t one of them.
2024 alone has been a cracking year, from big budget titles like Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Metaphor: ReFantazio to indie fare like Balatro and Animal Well.
If Musk truly things the quality of games has dropped, maybe he just needs to play more games. He’s apparently got the free time for it.