Larian’s adoption of AI utilities has ignited a wave of backlash that extends well beyond the core gaming community.
Recently, Larian Studios disclosed their integration of artificial intelligence into their development workflow. For instance,
This revelation sparked a “cancel culture” movement among certain players and industry professionals who oppose the trend of “displacing human talent” with automated systems. Critics argue that such technology is effectively “stealing jobs” from creative professionals.
Michael Douse, Director of Publishing at Larian Studios, stepped in to clarify the company’s position:
“Using AI for concept development essentially means that an individual might have a vision or want to convey a fundamental idea but lacks the means to do so. Rather than spending hours on Google or struggling with verbal descriptions, they can generate a prompt to help the artist better visualize the intent. It functions as a communication bridge. From there, the artist performs their actual craft—creating the art—instead of having to assemble a mood board just to get the point across.”
Fallout: New Vegas director Josh Sawyer responded to these comments wordlessly, posting his original, hand-drawn concept sketches for his game Pentiment—created entirely without AI—followed by the final polished in-game scenes.
Source: iXBT.games