Artificial intelligence remains one of the most controversial topics in game development. Some people believe it can help make game development faster and handle repeated tasks more easily, while others feel it can take away the human creativity that makes games unique.
Now, the topic has come up again with Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, as Crystal Dynamics and publisher Amazon Games have officially confirmed that generative AI was used during the game’s development. The information was revealed through an “AI Generated Content Disclosure” added to the game’s Steam page. According to the statement, AI-assisted tools were only used during the early stages of development to help with “exploration and temporary development content.”
The message reads, “AI-assisted tools were used during development to support some early exploration and temporary development content. Any AI-assisted assets were either replaced or refined by humans in order to maintain the creative and artistic vision of the development team.” After this, the game faced a lot of backlash from fans, which led Crystal Dynamics to issue a statement to Eurogamer.
“At Crystal Dynamics, we leverage AI tools to help our teams iterate on ideas faster and more efficiently, while ensuring that all finished content in the final product is human-crafted,” they added. “Our goal is to empower the creativity and flexibility of our developers to deliver the highest-quality experiences for players everywhere.” Based on this statement, it seems that the final version of the game will not include AI-generated content, though we will only know for sure when it launches next year on February 13 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
In other news, Sony has filed a new patent for an AI-powered system that could automatically turn PlayStation gameplay clips into social media highlight reels.
