Different game companies approach generative AI in different ways. Some, like Electronic Arts, embrace it; others, like Larian, take a more measured, cautious approach. And then there's Hooded Horse, the publisher of games like Endless Legend 2, Cataclismo, and the breakout hit Manor Lords, whose CEO Tim Bender recently told Kotaku, "I fucking hate gen AI art."
"It has made my life more difficult in many ways…suddenly it infests shit in a way it shouldn't," Bender said. "It is now written into our contracts if we're publishing the game, 'no fucking AI assets'."
Banning AI art is easier said than done, as some studios—Larian and Sandfall Interactive, to name a couple high-profile examples—have taken to using gen AI in pre-production, ostensibly to help speed things along. To help counter that, Bender says he urges developers to not use generative AI anywhere, even just for placeholders.
"Because of that, we're constantly having to watch and deal with it and try to prevent it from slipping in, because it’s cancerous."
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