Text-to-3D Models Could Impact Video Game Development, UGC, and In-Game Ads

Artificial intelligence breakthroughs in the moving-image space have multiplied in recent months.

Competition among open-source and private models has been key to the rapid advancements in AI recently, Andrew Kim, ARK Invest research associate, wrote in an October 10 newsletter. 

Google Research and UC Berkeley recently published research on their new text-to-3D model, DreamFusion, the same day Meta published Make-A-Video. DreamFusion’s text-to-3D uses Imagen as a pretrained text-to-image model in conjunction with another 3D model called a Neural Radiance Field, or NeRF. The model generates 2D images from different angles, enabling the construction of 3D assets that computer graphics software like Blender or Unity can support, Kim wrote. 

“In our view, text-to-3D models could have a profound impact on video game development, user-generated content, and in-game advertising,” Kim wrote. “Based on our preliminary estimates, global gaming software and services revenues could approach $200 billion as video game development costs top $100 billion in 2022.”

Kim said the commercialization of text-to-3D models is likely to disrupt the firm’s forecasts: AI models could lower the costs of video game design and development dramatically while the adoption of user-generated content (UGC) lowers the barriers to entry. More consumer brands are likely to experiment with immersive in-game advertising, like those advertising on Roblox during the past few years, Kim said. 

“Moreover, digital ad dollars are likely to move into video games at an accelerated rate if text-to-3D models evolve toward the production of full virtual environments that can host cost-efficient, immersive, programmatic in-game advertising,” Kim wrote.

Investors looking to gain exposure to the lucrative AI industry should consider the ARK Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF (ARKQ). 

Companies within ARKQ are focused on and are expected to substantially benefit from the development of new products or services, technological improvements, and advancements in scientific research related to, among other things, energy, automation and manufacturing, materials, artificial intelligence, and transportation.

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