As a developer over 30 years, and a 20-year Sony veteran who worked on connecting the PS1 and PS2 online, I watched multiplayer backend services transform from the era of dial-up and hosting your own servers to the modern cloud services.

The technology isn’t the only thing that evolved – the way we build games has changed too. We have shifted from in-house engineering to a “film model” of co-development. With GenAI joining the scene, we’re evolving again. In this session, we will explore the evolution of backend engineering and look to the future. With GenAI as the newest “intern”, we’ll examine how our teams will interact with AI, using practices like Spec Driven Development, and how we will work in harmony to accelerate development.

Crucially, we will discuss why the core knowledge, understanding, and IP of your code must ultimately remain in the hands of human developers and your studio.