Multimedia Sound Workers

At the beginning of the video game age, developers naturally focused on game play and visuals. Today, with ever-faster computer processors, increasing storage space, a variety of equipment on which to play—from the Internet, to the home console, to tablet computers and smartphones—and sophisticated recording and editing software and hardware, sound workers are gaining in both importance and the respect they receive. Audio is one of the most rapidly developing areas of game work (especially as a result of advances in artificial intelligence, AI), and many in the industry see this field as one that will have dynamic future growth. "Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the way video game audio is produced and experienced," according to ElevenLabs, an AI audio research and deployment company. "AI algorithms and machine learning techniques are being leveraged to power real-time sound effect generation, creating more realistic, adaptive, and efficient sound effects that respond to player actions and in-game events in real-time." But this technology—especially generative AI—is in its early stages of development and use, so it is not yet in use by every sound worker and computer game company.