Whether he’s popularizing electric cars, launching rockets into outer space, or stirring up controversy on social media—Elon Musk can never sit still for long. As if all the projects he’s currently juggling weren’t enough, the billionaire entrepreneur has announced to tackle yet another one: a gaming studio.
Elon Musk’s xAI plans to create video games
Musk is supposedly starting his own game studio because he’s unhappy with the current state of the gaming industry. He said as much in response to a late November tweet from Dogecoin co-creator Billy Markus complaining about “ideologically captured” (read: “woke”) games, which prompted Musk to assert that “massive corporations” nowadays own “too many” developers.
Because of this perceived issue, Musk’s not-at-all-massive corporation xAI will launch its own studio and “make games great again,” the billionaire said. Like the name suggests, xAI is an artificial intelligence company, so its game development venture will also be AI-driven. What all of this actually means is unclear, but the way Musk framed his announcement naturally invites some interpretations.
Too many game studios that are owned by massive corporations. @xAI is going to start an AI game studio to make games great again! https://t.co/UR4nFODyfd
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 27, 2024
What Musk’s “AI game studio” could look like
xAI was envisioned as an OpenAI competitor, focused on making generative AI tech like ChatGPT. While such solutions have both existing and potential applications in game development, Musk’s use of the phrase “AI game studio” suggests that artificial intelligence might play a more central role in his venture than it does for typical developers.
Given how Musk’s announcement is essentially a response to the perceived wokeness in video games, it’s possible his studio will explore AI as a co-creator—empowering players to design characters, environments, or even game mechanics with minimal effort.
The company could also leverage AI to create dynamic narratives and adaptive NPCs that intelligently respond to player actions, offering deeply personalized gameplay experiences. Such technology would align with Musk’s stated agenda by offering a way for like-minded people to help create games that they feel are missing from the modern gaming landscape.
Alternatively, the studio might simply aim to use AI to speed up traditional game production. However, given Musk’s reputation as someone always pursuing innovation—even to the point of reinventing the wheel—such a straightforward goal seems unlikely to be the primary motivation behind this venture.
Musk cares about wokeness, games, and wokeness in games
Walter Isaacson’s 2023 biography of Musk describes him as a lifelong gamer. The billionaire himself suggested as much in the past, like when he told Joe Rogan that he’s in the top 20 Diablo 4 players in the world—a claim that’s iffy at best. Regardless, Musk clearly plays a lot of games and has the resources to have them made, so it’s not too surprising that he’s now decided to do so.
As for his crusade against wokeness, that’s connected to Musk’s shift from identifying as “socially liberal and fiscally conservative” in 2014 to adopting a traditional conservative ideology over the following decade.
Isaacson’s biography suggests his right-wing stances were partly triggered by his now-estranged child, Vivian Jenna Wilson, coming out as trans in 2020. No matter the reasons, what’s clear is that the 2024 version of Musk wears head-turning MAGA hats and has spent eye-watering amounts of money to help Donald Trump get back into the White House.
Fighting against “woke” diversity efforts is a major part of Musk’s public identity. And long before he became a right-wing political figure who engages in such activity, he was a gamer. Therefore, committing resources to fighting the gaming industry’s perceived wokeness—whether by criticizing Assassin’s Creed Shadows for having a black protagonist or launching an anti-woke game studio—aligns with who Elon Musk is today.
DEI kills art
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 24, 2024
Will we see an anti-woke movement in game development?
Whether xAI’s game studio could spark an industry-wide anti-woke movement is difficult to say right now. Musk would certainly hope so, but without the specifics of how exactly he intends to “make games great again,” all we can do is wildly speculate.
For the moment, the growing popularity of anti-woke influencers suggests that no matter how exactly Musk’s game studio will try to push back against wokeness, there’ll be an audience for its products. But whether that fanbase will be large enough to inspire a broader movement across the game development industry is doubtful.
Contrary to the often repeated “go woke, go broke” mantra, inclusivity in video games doesn’t preclude commercial success. Baldur’s Gate 3, Starfield, Hades, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and The Last of Us Part II are just some of the many games that were flagged by the oft-circulated “woke content detector” in recent years and yet went on to become wildly successful regardless.
Of course, there’s also no shortage of woke games that failed, but the market is far too complex to attribute something like the underwhelming launch of Dragon Age: The Veilguard to inclusivity.
Much like wokeness isn’t a reliable predictor of commercial success, neither is its absence. Therefore, merely knowing that Musk’s game studio will be anti-woke doesn’t give us enough information to try predicting whether it’ll have any success, let alone create industry-wide trends.
Musk’s game studio might not see the light of day
Another uncertainty is whether this whole xAI game development initiative will actually come to fruition. Musk does have a bit of a track record of making grand promises that fail to materialize.
Fully self-driving cars, private trips around the moon, and climate change-solving rocket fuel are just some of the many lofty ideas that he pledged to realize over the years—sometimes repeatedly—with not much to show for it.
Given how vague it was, Musk’s game studio announcement may very well end up adding to this ever-growing pile of his unfulfilled ambitions.
