- Content: 
By Gavin Boyle
Gamers are outraged as video game companies begin to experiment with how AI can fit into industry, causing multiple projects to change course.
“Our whole professional careers got canceled in one hour,” Artem Korovkin, co-founder of game studio Goonswarm, told Washington Post after his planned game “Running With Scissors” was canceled when it was accused of using AI-generated images in its trailer.
While use of AI images in a trailer does not mean any AI assets were going to make it in the final cut of the game, players voiced a boycott of the title regardless because of the precedent that it sets and the potential jobs the use of AI replaced.
Related: Disney Almost Included AI-Written Character in Upcoming TRON Movie
“Running With Scissors” is not the only game to fall victim to backlash after the use of AI was disclosed.
Last year, one of the biggest games in the entire industry was “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.” It secured millions of fans and won “Game of the Year” at The Game Awards, which picks its winner in part through a public vote. This award was later rescinded when it was found that AI played a part of the development process, even though none of the work done by AI ended up in the final product.
“Everything in the game is human-made,” game director Guillaume Broche told Polygon. “When AI first came out in 2022, we’d already started on the game. It was just a new tool, we tried it, and we didn’t like it at all. It felt wrong.”
“We took it out as soon as we found it,” Broche continued, discussing how the studio responded to the brief way it used AI to cover textures it had missed. “But yeah, the concept art, voice actors, everything is human made.”
This widespread aversion to AI in the gaming industry is felt to a lesser extent throughout the entire entertainment world, as many projects have chosen not to use AI for fear of backlash, even when it would make sense. Last year, for example, it was revealed that Disney scrapped an AI-generated character for its recently released TRON: LEGACY, despite that character literally being an AI sidekick.
While the use of AI was trashed at the time, Disney has since gone full steam ahead with the technology, announcing plans to introduce an AI system onto Disney+ that allows users to generate content using the company’s IP.
If AI is kept out of the gaming industry, it will be interesting to see how video games start to split from the rest of entertainment as other industries embrace, or at least tolerate, AI and the streamlined workflow that comes with the new tech.
Read Next: SAG-AFTRA Video Game Strike Drags on Over AI Protections
Questions or comments? Please write to us here.
Share:
– Content: +3