Gamers and Devs Are Pushing Back Against AI in Game Development
For better or worse, generative AI has been unleashed on the gaming industry.
On February 4, Roblox announced it’s adding 4D generation to its existing generative AI tool, allowing players to create interactive objects like cars and aircraft instead of just static items. The company’s generative AI creation tools are similar to Google’s Project Genie, which was shown off on January 29, and immediately had users “creating” generative worlds resembling popular series like The Legend of Zelda.
Project Genie is a text-to-generation tool where users supply a prompt like, “create a game where my dog’s toys rise up and fight back,” and Genie will set it to work, creating the scenario and letting you run around in the generated world for a limited amount of time.
‘I View It As a Tool’ Todd Howard Comments on AI in Game Development
Bethesda executive producer Todd Howard talks about the use of AI in making games and shares his opinion on its use, calling it a ‘tool.’
But whether generative AI tools are viewed as a Prometheus moment – the titan who stole fire from the gods and gave it to humanity – or more of a Pandora’s box – the chest that was opened, releasing all the evils out onto the world – is up for debate. In all likelihood, it’s probably somewhere in the middle.
Does Generative AI Have a Place in Game Development?
Indie Game Devs Give Their Thoughts On Generative AI
According to this year’s Game Developer Conference State of the Gaming Industry survey, 52% of the game industry professionals who were surveyed think generative AI is having a negative impact on the game industry. That’s 30% higher compared to 2025.
“At first, I had a little bit of anxiety because, if we really can start just cranking out games like that, then an entire industry of people who’ve spent years perfecting their craft could end up jobless,” Alexis Brutman, CEO and game director at independent Astral Clocktower Studios, tells GameRant.
At a time when each week seems to bring a new round of layoffs to the industry, Google’s Genie or Roblox’s Cube Foundation Model don’t exactly do much to assuage those stresses.
An AI Just Built a Fully Playable Pokemon Clone With 1 Prompt
As AI tools continue to spark controversy in the video game industry, someone builds a fully playable Pokemon clone using a very basic prompt.
While there was some initial anxiety, Brutman explained that it dissipated somewhat after seeing Genie wasn’t quite powerful enough to make big, immediate changes in the industry. Though it does raise a few questions: Do these tools have any place in game development, and how far will they go?
“[AI] has no place in creative design work, especially because so many AI models are trained on artists’ work that they didn’t have permission to be trained on, and games are meant to be made by humans, period,” Brutman said. And for the most part, it seems consumers agree.
According to a Quantic Foundry survey, of the over 1.75 million gamers who participated, 62.7% indicated they felt very negatively about the use of generative AI in video games. Respondents particularly had an issues with generative AI used in the creation of art, music, audio effects, dialogue, and narrative story elements such as quests.
“It seems like the opinion of gamers is overwhelmingly negative, and in the end, that’s what really matters,” Brutman said. “If gamers are shouting at developers that they do not want to see [generative AI] in games, I think maybe we just leave it the hell alone.”
Generative AI tools give studios the ability to cut corners and costs in the name of increasing efficiency, which oftentimes has an impact on the creators behind games.
“As humans, there’s going to be trends that come up and we decide we don’t like, and our wallets start to speak,” Marcus Brown, CEO and co-founder of FanArcade, an independent mobile games studio, tells GameRant.
However, at the same time, you have games like Arc Raiders. The game has been a massive success. At the time of writing, the game has 231,470 concurrent players on Steam. It also utilizes generative AI for its voiceover work.
Arc Raiders’ AI Voice Controversy Explained
Hype for Arc Raiders continues to build, but a recent controversy regarding the possible use of AI voices has the game in hot water.
Larian Studios, the developer behind Baldur’s Gate 3, another critical success, also caught flak for saying they used generative AI to create concept art. The concept art was always replaced by human artists, but the community backlash was enough to force the developer to say they’d no longer use generative AI during development.
It’s Generally Up to Gamers To Decide How Generative AI is Used
Gamers Might Have More Power Than They Think
The power of the consumer lies in their wallets. If there’s something a developer does – like utilize generative AI tools during the development process of their games – gamers can essentially cast their vote for how they feel about it.
Mat Piscatella, executive director for Games with Circana, a market research and data analytics company, likened the situation to Project Ten Dollar.
Project Ten Dollar was a 2010 initiative by EA to try to get publishers to generate revenue from used game sales, rather than the money going solely to retailers like GameStop. Basically, if you bought a used game at GameStop, you’d also have to pay EA to unlock game features, including multiplayer access.
Games like Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 2 both had downloadable content locked behind this initiative. In the end, consumers voted with their wallets, and the project failed.
“[Publishers] all went heavily in on it because they wanted to fight used [game sales]. Consumers pushed back pretty strongly on that concept, and it was dead within a year,” Piscatella tells GameRant.
The same thing could happen with generative AI in video games. If consumers don’t buy games that feature Gen AI assets, we’re not likely to see too many instances of AI asset use pop up.
“If all the games come that have Gen AI, and it’s all garbage, then it won’t last very long. If we get a bunch of games with Gen AI, and it’s good or received well by the player base, then all of a sudden you’re going to see more of it,” he said.
Gamers can shape the industry, and with the precedent set by the reception to Arc Raiders and the push back to Larian’s generative AI use, it seems like the developers will listen.
“Ultimately, the dollar is going to win over everything,” Brown said. “If the consumers [say], No, we don’t like this because it’s so obviously AI, and we’re turned off by it, you’ll see game studios back away from how much they implement.”
Can Consumers, Developers and Executives Find Common Ground?
For Better Or Worse, AI Has Changed The Game
In its recent earnings call, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said that the company is all in on generative AI. Take-Two publishes huge games, including Borderlands 4, NBA 2K, and the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6.
“We’re actively embracing generative AI,” he said in reply to a question during the company’s earnings call.
“We have hundreds of pilots and implementations across our company, including with our studios, and we are seeing opportunities to drive efficiencies, reduce costs, and create the opportunity to do what digital technology has always allowed, which is mundane tasks become easier and less relevant, which frees up our creators to do the more interesting tasks of making superb entertainment.”
Overall, it’s not a surprising take. CEOs, as Piscatella pointed out to me during our conversation, are generally excited about tools that could save their company money. And according to the GDC’s survey, 36% of game industry professionals are already using generative AI tools in some capacity as part of their job.
However, when a CEO starts saying things like they are seeing opportunities to drive efficiencies and reduce costs, that can sometimes just translate to layoffs. According to Brutman,
“In general, as a human race, we need to put some boundaries down about what we’re okay with. It’s the wild west out there. They’re doing whatever the heck they want with [AI].
While Brutman doesn’t think the creation of AI is inherently bad, it’s hard to deny that it has grown considerably more negative with lack of oversight.
“It’s become more and more negative, in a lot of different ways, where it’s replacing humans in their jobs in an already unstable economy in multiple fields. There certainly should be some clear standards, and I think every studio should have those standards,” she said.
For example, when Astral Clocktower Studios hires voice actors, their contract includes an AI rider. It’s an agreement that says the studio will not train AI using their voice or use AI at all in their game.
It’s something she’d like to see more of in the industry —studios taking a clear stance that makes it easier for gamers to choose the kind of development they’d like to support.
“Developers are going to have to make very personal decisions about who they work for and in what capacity they’re comfortable with using AI,” Brown said. Before starting FanArcade, Brown worked for Epic Games on Fortnite, specifically on the game’s Festival Mode.
According to Brown, in the current landscape, studios will likely need to adopt AI tools in order to stay competitive. However, he said when it comes to music, voice work, art —the more creative aspects of game dev —AI has no place.
“When you look at a painting, nobody is expecting the artist to handcraft the canvas on which the artist paints,” he said. “So any of those elements within what we do that I would consider part of the scaffolding or the canvas, I don’t necessarily have opposition in terms of using AI. But all the things we create will still have a human touch when it comes to actually painting it.”
AI will never be able to replace human ingenuity. Brown specifically points out that AI, inherently, cannot create something new, as it can’t think outside what it’s trained on.
Electronic Arts is Pushing Devs to Use AI, and They’re Not Happy
Electronic Arts is reportedly pushing its employees to use artificial intelligence, and they are not happy with the recent changes.
It’ll still be left up to humans to decide what trends come next. But when it comes to making mundane tasks easier, that’s where AI can shine in game development.
“Lowering technical barriers doesn’t replace the need to have good taste, or to come up with good ideas. To be disciplined enough, have the right creative voice to appeal to gamers,” Brutman said. “If anything, it might make those qualities even more important, because audiences can tell when something has real intent behind it, versus something that’s been assembled by a machine.”
The conversation around AI and its place in game development will continue to evolve. There will likely have to be a reconciliation between what gamers are willing to support with their money, how executives push AI onto their employees, and how much the developers behind the games are willing to accept or push back on.