2 days ago
Why AI May Be The Next Power Player In The $455B Gaming Market
Make no mistake, the video game industry is massive. In 2024 alone, it generated nearly $455 billion in global revenue. That's more than the combined valuations of all teams and franchises in the National Football League, Major League Baseball and National Hockey League. Video gaming giants Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo have long dominated video gameplay, but a new kind of player is stepping up to get a piece of the gaming console – AI.
Enter Dizzaract Games, a UAE-born gaming studio positioning itself at the intersection of artificial intelligence and interactive entertainment. Founded by AI engineer and entrepreneur Ilman Shazhaev, Dizzaract is already being billed as the largest gaming studio in the Middle East by headcount since its launch in January 2025. And with a product roadmap designed for user co-creation, adaptive storytelling and real-time personalization, the company is betting on a seismic shift in what video games are and how they'll be built.
'Until now, narratives were scripted – you played through what was already written. But AI flips that. It can generate evolving storylines that respond to your choices, making gameplay feel more like stepping into a dream or directing your own film in real time,' Shazhaev told me on a call.
Dizzaract's flagship title, Farcana, is a third-person team shooter with a twist. Each player is paired with a real-time AI 'twin' that learns their playstyle and competes with maxed-out game specs. There's even an AI-vs-AI mode where these digital twins battle each other while their human counterparts spectate – and profit. It's not just a novelty. It's intended to upend the cycle of grind, repeat and upgrade that's defined much of modern gaming for the past 30 years.
Beyond Farcana, the studio's second major offering is Gamed, a unified identity dashboard that consolidates user data, assets and achievements across platforms. Think of it as a gaming passport. Shazhaev says that in just two months, over 800,000 users have onboarded, linking more than $11.5 million worth of digital assets across Steam, Epic, Xbox and PlayStation gaming platforms.
He says they're also building Gigi, an AI-powered global ranking system that scores players not just on skill, but on broader metrics like time played, digital asset ownership and community influence. It's a bold effort to redefine what 'elite' means in an era where performance is only one part of a player's gaming legacy.
Dizzaract is also using AI across its development pipeline to help the human team do everything from digital asset creation to quality assurance. That AI strategy is helping to lower production costs and compress design cycles, which Shazhav calls critical advantages when facing off with incumbent gaming firms such as EA, Ubisoft or Tencent.
But he says an even more radical shift is coming regarding in-game purchases that players can make for a better gaming experience. 'Think about in-game economies where item prices or currency rates react in real time to global markets or external marketplaces. That's where things get really interesting. The pricing system could also adapt based on the country you are playing from, taking into account factors like your country's currency inflation and other economic indicators. Integrating those gaming economies directly into the world economy gives you different experiences altogether,' Shazhaev said.
Gaming tournament models are also being rethought. So instead of a winner-takes-all approach, AI can distribute rewards across thousands of participants using real-time data inputs.
'Fair distribution is one of the hardest parts to get right—people chase the biggest rewards. But AI can handle the complexity. It adapts in real time, using inputs like player numbers, participation levels, and even market data to keep things dynamic and fair. That's a major breakthrough in how game economies can evolve,' he added.
In this model, AI doesn't just make games cheaper to build – it makes the underlying economics more responsive, inclusive and durable.
Legacy storefronts like Steam and Xbox aren't going away, but they were built for static content. AI-native games – personalized, constantly evolving – demand smarter infrastructure. That's where Dizzaract sees another edge focusing on cloud-based and decentralized platforms that are built for continuous, player-driven content.
'Imagine scrolling through games like you scroll through TikTok, Instagram reels or YouTube shorts,' Shazhaev said. "You can play each game in-depth, and if you don't like it, you just scroll to the next one. Most of these games will be user-driven, created by the users themselves. This is bringing a completely new pace to the gaming sector.'
To support this, the company is also building a blockchain-backed skin marketplace – a skin is a cosmetic change to a game character's appearance, like outfits or gear, that doesn't typically affect gameplay. This decentralized market will also showcase players' in-game asset values and publishing tools designed for game players to make modifications or enhancements to AI-native titles.
'AI-native distribution won't be defined by legacy storefronts alone. It requires an intelligent, player-first layer that reflects how games – and gamers – are evolving. That's the gap we're building for,' he said.
Shazhaev's decision to build and launch his company in Abu Dhabi was strategic. He says the UAE is rapidly becoming a global AI hub, and government programs like Abu Dhabi Gaming are actively courting game studios with capital, infrastructure and incentives to base there.
'If you're building frontier tech, go where the frontier is moving – and right now, that's the Middle East,' he said.
It's a move that adds to his growing status as a visionary and leader within the emerging AI gaming sector. In an industry long dominated by a few platforms and publishers, Dizzaract is showing what happens when you combine startup agility, state support and AI-native design principles. 'We're a UAE-born company with global ambitions - and we believe the best games of the next decade will be the ones that understand you, challenge you and evolve with you,' Shazhaev concluded.
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