Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google’s AI research organization DeepMind, appeared to suggest that Veo 3, Google’s latest video-generating model, could potentially be used for video games. World models are different from video-generation models. The former simulates the dynamics of a real-world environment, which lets agents predict how the world will evolve in response to their actions. Video-gen models synthesize realistic video sequences. Google has plans to turn its multimodal foundation model, Gemini 2.5 Pro, into a world model that simulates aspects of the human brain. In December, DeepMind unveiled Genie 2, a model that can generate an “endless” variety of playable worlds. Veo 3, which is still in public preview, can create video as well as audio to go along with clips — anything from speech to soundtracks. While Veo 3 creates realistic movements by simulating real-world physics, it isn’t quite a world model yet. Instead, it could be used for cinematic storytelling in games, like cutscenes, trailers, and narrative prototyping. The model is also still a “passive output” generative model, and it (or a future Veo generation) would need to shift to a simulator that’s more active, interactive, and predictive. But the real challenge with video game production isn’t just impressive visuals; it’s real-time, consistent, and controllable simulation. That’s why it might make sense to see Google take a hybrid approach that leverages Veo and Genie in the future, should it pursue video game or playable world development.