Ex-Blizzard president says gamers need to ‘Man up’ over AI usage in games after Crimson Desert devs issue apology

AI is increasingly creeping its way into gaming, and it’s been the cause of a fair few blunders at this point: Call of Duty and Battlefield 6 have been accused of using it, both Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and the latest Anno game mistakenly included AI-generated assets in the final product, and just last week Nvidia revealed DLSS 5, which slaps an AI beautification filter over everything.

Next in line was Crimson Desert, when eagle-eyed players noticed what seemed to be AI artwork strewn across the game in tapestries and some 2D visual props. Developer Pearl Abyss quickly apologised to fans. As it turns out, Pearl Abyss committed the classic blunder of using generative AI tools “as part of early-stage iteration” to make various assets, but they were mistakenly not replaced by launch. It’s the same hot water Sandfall and Ubisoft found themselves in with Expedition 33 and Anno 117, respectively, with a very similar rationale.

But Pearl Abyss has already apologised so what more needs to be said? In comes former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra to dredge it all back up: “Why apologize? AI, in one form or another, will be in every single video game. I don’t get why devs feel the need to bend over for the few folks who can’t accept the reality that AI will be in every single thing—from video games to your fridge (it already is).”

Ybarra closes by saying gamers need to “Man up.”

Will AI be even more present in game design and development in the future? Unfortunately I don’t doubt it—Square Enix aims to have AI handle 70% of QA by 2027, and Ubisoft is investing more into generative AI tools, to name a few examples.

Should AI be in every video game? I, for one, would rather it isn’t. The AI assets that were discovered in Crimson Desert, for example, were paintings of horrifically mutated people and horses. In other words, what one might call ‘AI slop’, and not assets fit for the final game—which is why Pearl Abyss apologised for not disclosing its use of AI and is replacing the assets.

While Ybarra doesn’t put much stock in developers needing to declare AI use on platforms like Steam, a recent industry survey found that 9/10 game devs think generative AI use should be more fully disclosed. I think that says enough.

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