Larian Publishing Chief Calls Square Enix’s Decision to Entrust Quality Assurance to AI ‘Stupid’

Square Enix has announced plans to widely adopt AI across its development pipeline, intending to entrust up to 70% of quality-assurance and bug-fixing duties to artificial intelligence.

Not everyone in the industry shares that view. Michael Daus, head of publishing at Larian Studios—the studio behind Baldur’s Gate 3—publicly denounced the proposal on X, calling it “stupid” and potentially damaging to the sector. He argues that QA teams are among the most engaged and resilient groups within any game studio. Testers do more than catalog defects; they serve as a vital link to the community, delivering genuine feedback and sensing a game’s quality before it reaches the broader audience.

Daus stresses that AI and automation have value as tools, but they cannot replace people. “Testers’ judgement, conversations and sensitivity cannot be replicated by an algorithm,” he wrote. Testers have also traditionally been a gateway into game design, teaching future lead designers about mechanics and balance. Removing that pathway erodes a company’s talent pipeline.

In his view, games cannot be understood solely through data, because their assessment relies on intuition, empathy and human judgement—qualities AI is unable to mirror.

Source: iXBT.games