Sell Data to AI Companies: Is Your Game Studio Big Enough?
AITrainingDataBroker.com
Sell Data to AI Companies:
Is Your Game Studio
Big Enough?
What do you have?
5 parts: project · paper trail · proof · who qualifies · left out
Jimmy Lin
Sell Data to AI Companies: Is Your Game Studio Big Enough?
A game studio gets a short question from an AI company: what do you have?
Many owners think only the giant studios with the biggest budgets, the AAA ones, get asked that.
So, is your game studio big enough to sell data to AI companies?
The video
Sell Data to AI Companies: Is Your Game Studio Big Enough?
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A game studio gets a short question from an AI company: what do you have?
Many owners think only the giant studios with the biggest budgets, the AAA ones, get asked that.
So, is your game studio big enough to sell data to AI companies?
A studio of 25 people leaves the same kind of trail as a giant, and that trail is the first test.
A Unity 6 or Unreal Engine project keeps every change the team made, and who made it.
AI labs study that trail, so a studio far smaller than the AAA giants may qualify.
This is general information, not legal advice.
First, what sits inside that project?
Start with the code, because most of a game lives there.
In a Unity 6 project the source is written in C#, and an Unreal Engine project keeps its own source files.
The valuable part is the git history: each commit is one change, with its date and its author.
Large art and sound files sit in Git LFS, an add-on that tracks big files, so their history counts too.
A merged pull request is a change a second developer reviewed, and its review thread shows what they argued about.
The list of contributors shows how many people built the game.
Next, the writing around the code.
Around the code sits the writing that explains it.
Design documents in Google Docs and Google Drive say what the team meant to build.
Tickets in GitHub Issues or ClickUp say what broke, who took it and when it was fixed.
The team's own Discord and Slack exports hold the daily talk.
QuickBooks and Google Workspace cover the business side, such as costs, calendars and email.
2 more kinds of data come from the machines themselves.
Builds and players leave a third kind of data.
Jenkins build logs, from the team's automatic build system, show every build as it passed or failed.
GameAnalytics telemetry shows what players did, such as the level where they quit.
Telemetry can carry player IDs, so we de-identify it first, which means we strip out the IDs and other personal details.
Together, these show how the game was built and how it was played.
But what do AI labs ask to see first?
AI labs ask first for proof of value: one feature traced from start to finish.
Say a studio adds a double jump.
The design document says why players need it, and the ticket says who builds it.
The pull request then shows the code change and the review.
When those 3 link together, a lab can see how the team plans, builds and fixes, and the names are replaced first.
So which studios can show this?
People come first when AI labs size up a studio.
Some AI labs look for roughly 20 people at desks now, or 50 or more at peak.
That is a guide, not a rule.
They also ask for years of history in the same tools, and whether the people were employees or contractors.
Then comes ownership: a studio cannot license data it does not own, unless the real owner agrees.
This will not fit every studio, but a smaller studio with truly unusual data is still reviewed.
Next, what cannot be licensed at all.
Some of a studio's data cannot be licensed.
First, third-party packages from the Unity Asset Store or open source belong to others.
Second, player personal data, such as names and emails.
Third, children's data.
According to the US Federal Trade Commission, in January 2025, a children's privacy rule was updated.
It now requires separate parent consent before a child's data goes to outside companies.
Fourth, public community chat, which is listed apart from company data.
We leave all 4 out of the license, so they are never shared with an AI lab.
Ask your own lawyer how the children's rule applies to your game.
So what can you do before anyone asks? 3 moves.
First, inventory what you hold, meaning each tool, the year you started it, and where its export lives.
Second, count people and years, meaning how many sat at desks now and at peak, and how long each tool has run.
Third, separate third-party code from the code your own team wrote.
The next slide turns those 3 moves into a checklist.
Here is a checklist for a game studio.
First, which tools hold your project, and where is each one exported?
Second, how many people sit at desks now and at peak, and how many years of history are there?
Third, are they employees or contractors, and who owns the data?
Fourth, which parts came from packages, players or children, and must be set apart?
With those answers, you may be wondering: who can help with your data?
That is where I can help, so let me introduce myself.
I'm Jimmy. I have worked in data at Fortune 500 companies, as a data analyst, a data engineer and a software engineer, and I am trained in data science. I am also a Canadian military veteran, specialized in data analysis and reporting.
For a game studio, I come in as your broker and technical advisor, whether you are an owner or a lead developer.
As your broker, I help you create relationships with AI labs and bring back their offers, so you can compare the price and the terms before you decide.
I work through the terms with you, and you make the final call.
As your technical advisor, I guide your team through what to export, the format, the de-identification and compliance.
We move forward only after your team signs off.
I work on commission only, paid by the AI lab.
Already shopping your data around? Contact us anyway. We can still work through the terms with you and help you negotiate a better price.
If you are buying data for an AI lab, I find the right data and see it through to delivery, so you can focus on AI research.
So a game studio does not have to be AAA: what counts is the project, the people, the years and the ownership.
More on game studios and their data at AITrainingDataBroker.com.
Thank you for watching.
I will see you next time.
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