Happy New Year everyone! 2026! We did it! I was going to write a cute column about new year's resolutions for video games, but I decided to ruin my week's vacation and instead write something that will get me angry emails from people who agree with me on 95% of other issues. That's because I'm afraid that 2026 will be the year that AI in games becomes very annoying. We will hear about it endlessly and it will be so annoying.
Okay, let’s be honest: this is already annoying. As you know, Larian's CEO said in an interview that the team experimented with generative AI in the early stages of planning the new game Divinity. Many fans didn't like this. Especially since some at Larian have previously expressed a distaste for AI, and the company's games are known and loved for their human touch. Other fans thought it was foolish for Larian to avoid testing a new tool that could help finish games faster and eliminate crunch (even though all it “can do” here is do the heavy lifting). As with anything, the Internet has had its share of battles.
How AI will make headlines in gaming by the end of 2025
Larian's CEO has stated that concept artists will not be fired and that the tools are intended to support employees rather than replace them. Everyone then pointed out Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's use of generative AI in the early stages (to the extent of accidentally leaving placeholder art behind) and how it wasn't criticized like Divinity. Then Expedition 33 was criticized and the Indie Game Awards were cancelled. However, this seems to be because a company representative stated that Gen AI was not used at all when submitting the game.
And the Expedition 33 team said they only used AI a little bit, didn't like it from the start, and have some regrets. Additionally, the director of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 jumped in and said that everyone is stupid for not facing the reality of it all. Enthusiasm is high! I'm running out of patience!
TheGamer Game of the Year – 2025
After 12 months, there were some unexpected hits and some pretty expected conclusions. Let’s start 2026!
And then we started getting annoyed. Now let's lay the cards on the table. I'm not a fan of generative AI. And the reason I say 'generative AI' specifically is because people who hate AI tend to throw the baby out with the bathwater, while people who like AI tend to say that it's the baby too and it should be protected at all costs.
When it comes to AI in the arts (and we're not talking about crop monitoring or protein folding here), there seem to be two distinct conversations. Those who support AI are soulless, talentless hacks, and those who oppose it are idiots who insist on talking while cars leave horses in the dust.
Games need to understand what using AI means.
No, I don't like generative AI for a number of big reasons that you may or may not already agree with. We don't have to litigate my own personal feelings about the human element of art, and I'm not going to change your mind about what constitutes creation.
I hate AI being trained on copyrighted material. I hate that data centers are driving up my electricity bills and probably polluting my water supply. I don't like that many users are already treating generative AI as an unbiased god of knowledge that can answer all questions correctly, even when it comes to matters of opinion or serious mental health issues. Most of all, I hate the fact that em dashes (message in writing) are now associated with AI.
But what's even more frustrating is the fundamental disagreement about what purpose generative AI is used for in game development. What do I mean by placeholder? What is concept art? Are you creating a first draft of art for a concept artist to work on? Are you using AI to iterate and improve concept art that has already been created? Is it a vague brainstorm or a very specific prompt?
The same goes for writing. What is placeholder text in roleplaying games? Are we talking about a basic plot that will be created and embellished by experts? Or do you mean a generic dialogue tree that you can test your game on? Oh, and it's being tested. Obviously, AI will be testing the game. Will it cost jobs? How will AI test games? What are the basic skills? How many questions can you ask in one paragraph?
Your favorite game developer is probably using AI. CD Projekt Red claims the technology, along with Larian, has “meaningful” benefits.
CDPR is already implementing AI technology into its ‘productivity domain.’
The less fans understand how the technology is being used and the fewer developers are open about whether they are using the technology or not, the more frustrating this problem will become. And no, I'm not saying fans should 'educate themselves' about how AI works. They understand the basics. Don't tell me that everyone can participate if they just learned the math equations behind machine learning.
That's not the problem. The problem is that fans don't even hear how it's being used until it's a PR crisis. There's a big difference between 'we experimented with AI to test a few things and hated it' and 'we used AI to create the foundation of the game', and all of that will be brought together by the loudest possible voices, pros and cons, pros and amateurs alike.
The battle lines for AI are already drawn
And just like me yelling at you on Threads isn't going to make you change your opinion, forcing AI down people's throats isn't going to make them more excited either. I've seen claims that it's literally impossible not to use AI products today. That's because the tech has been writing the code that's used in most, if not most, of the popular apps and operating systems. 'Why are you trying to fight when you're already on the computer?'
Then there are proponents who conflate anything automated on a computer, such as procedural generation, to the same thing as generative AI. So if you think about it, we've actually been using this tool for decades. And of course, there are the everyday people in between who enjoy creating quirky photos of their kids playing at the Super Bowl and sharing them online instead of using work email.
Conversely, claiming that everything is AI now, that the technology is inevitable, and that companies are secretly using it doesn't really help the game against AI opponents. All you're doing is creating a paranoid audience that feels like they have to constantly look for products they don't want. This isn't about making you feel better about AI or showing how it improves the games themselves or the lives of your employees, it's simply about telling you that you have no choice and if you don't like it you can just go buy old games from the Steam sale.
The game's recent Gen AI controversy hasn't affected its current Steam top seller.
All four of the platform's paid bestsellers tie into the ongoing debate in a very direct way.
Even if you think this is all stupid, the longer this debate goes on, the more people will become suspicious of things like strange ambient music, awkward dialogue, or slightly distorted hand-drawn backgrounds. Everything will become a battleground for what is real and what is fake, what is useful and what is heartless.
I respect that this is a strange situation for pro-AI people. They rightly believe that this is a groundbreaking technology that could change civilization even more than the Internet. So it must feel really weird to have so many geeks like me crying that they don't like it. I feel like humanity was given a magic wand and I'm sure some idiots would still prefer to go back with their rotting wooden sticks. But when fans are upset about the AI in a game, treating them like naive idiots won't restore their trust. All it does is increase the volume and create a pressure feedback loop.
When developers circle the wagons or dismiss concerns as foolish, idiots like me dig in. And when idiots like me dig in, the pro-AI people get frustrated that there's nothing more to give and take in the conversation, and they dig in too. The important thing is that transparency can both cause and prevent blowback. Again, this just makes the whole thing annoying.
So we have a situation where we're being told that AI is inevitable in game development, but there's a ton of confusion about what it's actually used for, frustrating fans of all stripes. If the Expedition 33 team was telling the truth that they tried AI in 2022 and didn't like it, I'd be willing to believe them. If Larian were to tell you that they are actually expanding their creative workforce despite using AI, I would be willing to believe it. I really want to believe that the majority of people are approaching this issue in some form of good faith, even if they disagree. But the more companies obfuscate and hide their credit for AI, the more AI will become a battleground for fans.
I know, I know. It will pass. We'll get used to it, even if we don't like it. Please sprinkle it here. There is a dash. What is the harm? But until then, I think this whole thing is just too annoying to bear. I may be a big part of the problem.
