Corporations pumping lots of of billions in funding into new generative AI instruments and LLM fashions market it as a sea change expertise that shall be as revolutionary because the introduction of the desktop laptop. Even some recreation business figures consider it is going to usher in a brand new period through which video games are made higher, faster, and extra cheaply, democratizing growth for creatives with out hundred-person groups behind them. For indie writer Tim Bender, the current explosion in AI slop has been nothing however a headache. “If I sound pissed off, it’s as a result of, like, actually, all this factor has performed is made our lives harder.”
The label he helps run as CEO, Hooded Horse, struck gold after signing the medieval base-builder mega hit Manor Lords, however its library of revealed video games has grown far past it up to now two years with releases just like the Lego-like tower-defense recreation Cataclismo, the financial administration sim Employees & Sources: Soviet Republic, and the 4X sequel Infinite Legend 2. Being technique video games isn’t the one factor all of them have in frequent. Additionally they all adhere to a strict ban on generative AI artwork.
Battlefield 6 is getting accused of utilizing Gen AI. pic.twitter.com/fa2E79X8as
— Shooter Intel (@ShooterIntel) December 22, 2025
“I fucking hate gen AI artwork and it has made my life harder in some ways…all of a sudden it infests shit in a means it shouldn’t,” Bender instructed me in a current interview. “It’s now written into our contracts if we’re publishing the sport, ‘no fucking AI belongings.’”
It seems that simply saying no to gen AI is the simple half. Truly attempting to implement a ban is the place issues can get tough. There’s no magical machine you’ll be able to put a recreation via to detect if it has generative AI content material in it. Platforms like Steam, which require disclosures for using such content material, mainly function on good religion that builders shall be sincere about what’s of their video games. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 briefly had AI placeholder artwork in a single a part of the sport at launch earlier than it was ultimately pulled, however that field on the Steam web page was by no means checked.
Manufacturing will be messy sufficient even inside small studios. Improvement groups working with freelancers or outsource firms, as many indies do, could have a good tougher time sustaining checks all through the manufacturing pipeline to weed out any gen AI artwork utilization.
“[Gen AI art] is cancerous”
“We’ve gotten to the purpose the place we additionally speak to builders and we advocate they don’t use any gen AI anyplace within the course of as a result of a few of them would possibly in any other case suppose, ‘Okay, effectively, perhaps what I’ll do is for this place, I’ll put it as a placeholder,’ proper?” Bender instructed me. “Like some, folks could have this thought, like they might by no means wish to let it within the recreation, however they’ll suppose, ‘It may be a placeholder on this prototype construct.’ But when that will get performed, in fact, there’s an opportunity that that slips via, as a result of it solely takes a kind of slipping via in some construct and never getting changed or one thing.”
He continued, “due to that, we’re always having to look at and cope with it and attempt to forestall it from slipping in, as a result of it’s cancerous.”
Hooded Horse, which already this 12 months helped usher the grand technique sci-fi recreation Terra Invicta out of Early Entry and into its 1.0 launch, employs two full-time artists who assist with the entire writer’s advertising artwork, which might embrace appearances in showcases and bulletins for issues like Xbox Sport Cross launches. “It will be a betrayal of them to work with something that’s utilizing gen-AI artwork, like, I wouldn’t be capable to face them if we had that proper. And we’re completely dedicated ethically, for all the explanations , towards this,” Bender mentioned.
His standpoint isn’t one you hear an entire lot among the many online game business’s giants. EA is all in on the potential for AI to make its loot-box-driven sports activities franchises much more profitable. Embark Studios, maker of final 12 months’s mega-hit Arc Raiders, continues to shrug off complaints in regards to the recreation’s use of generative-AI voice performances.
“We don’t use AI to not have to rent folks or change folks or job teams or voice actors,” CEO Patrick Söderlund just lately instructed GamesBeat. “Individuals need to take a step again and perceive what it’s and the way it may be an enormous assist to builders and be an amazing profit to gamers. I understand it’s an intricate topic and dialogue.”
It’s about good ethics, not dangerous PR
There’s additionally a way amongst some builders that everybody else is speeding to embrace the AI revolution, and anybody who doesn’t will discover themselves left behind in a panorama that’s more and more aggressive and hostile to new recreation releases. “Korea is reportedly one of many international locations the place ChatGPT is used most actively,” Sean Kim, the co-CEO of Lies of P writer Neowiz, instructed Game Informer. “It’s laborious to discover a recreation firm right here immediately that isn’t utilizing AI ultimately. On the very least, firms are utilizing both ChatGPT or Gemini.”
Even some acclaimed GOTY winners have been captured by this mindset. “Our successes come from empowering folks to work in their very own means and convey the perfect out of their talent & craft, in order that we are able to make the perfect RPGs we are able to presumably make,” Baldur’s Gate 3 director Swen Vincke posted on X last month. “In that context, it will be irresponsible for us to not consider new applied sciences. Nevertheless, our processes are all the time evolving, and the place they don’t seem to be environment friendly or fail to align with who we’re, we are going to make adjustments.”
Holy fuck guys we’re not “pushing laborious” for or changing idea artists with AI.
We’ve a crew of 72 artists of which 23 are idea artists and we’re hiring extra. The artwork they create is unique and I’m very pleased with what they do.
I used to be requested explicitly about idea artwork…
— Swen Vincke @the place? (@LarAtLarian) December 16, 2025
The Larian Studios cofounder was responding to controversy that had erupted over earlier remarks that advised gen-AI could be used within the making of the studio’s subsequent RPG, Divinity. Vincke promised no gen-AI belongings within the completed recreation however advised artists would possibly experiment with it throughout the exploratory part of growth. For Hooded Horse, the problem with gen AI isn’t nearly skepticism over its usefulness or potential backlash from gamers, it’s in regards to the ethical points surrounding instruments educated on plagiarizing different folks’s work.
“In relation to gen-AI, it’s not a PR situation, it’s an ethics situation,” Bender mentioned. “The truth is, there’s a lot of it happening that the dedication simply needs to be that you just received’t enable it within the recreation, and if it’s ever found, as a result of this artist that was employed by this outdoors individual slipped one thing in, you get it out and also you change it. That needs to be the dedication. It’s a disgrace that it’s even crucial and it’s a really irritating factor to have to fret about.”
