In 2025, the video game industry experienced a significant shift as generative AI began to assert its influence. This technology found its way into some of the year’s most successful games, with executives from leading game studios admitting its widespread implementation across the sector, including within their own development teams. However, not everyone is on board. Many grassroots developers, particularly those in the indie game scene, are resisting this trend, actively promoting their games as free from generative AI.

Generative AI has swiftly replaced NFTs as the hot trend that publishers are eager to explore. Advocates of this technology argue that it could revolutionize game development by merging images, text, audio, and video, potentially reducing both development timelines and costs—two pressing challenges for the industry. In line with this vision, a number of gaming studios have announced collaborations with companies specializing in generative AI.

Ubisoft has developed technology capable of producing short dialogue snippets known as “barks” and has created AI-driven NPCs that engage players in conversation. Meanwhile, EA is working alongside Stability AI, and Microsoft is employing AI to both analyze and generate gameplay. Outside these partnerships, major players like Nexon, Krafton, and Square Enix have openly embraced generative AI.

This increasing integration of AI is becoming more prominent in major game releases. Previously, AI in gaming was mainly restricted to prototypes or smaller, less polished projects that often went unnoticed amidst the vast number of titles released annually on platforms like Steam. However, now, AI is making its mark on some of the year’s most anticipated games. For instance, the multiplayer shooter sensation ARC Raiders utilized AI for character dialogue, while Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 implemented AI-generated images. Even the TGA Game of the Year winner, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, initially featured AI images before they were discreetly removed.

The response to AI’s growing presence in games has been mixed among both players and developers. Generally, players seem averse to AI elements in their games. When AI assets were identified in Anno 117: Pax Romana, Ubisoft stated these assets had inadvertently bypassed review and promptly replaced them. Conversely, when similar assets were found in Black Ops 7, Activision acknowledged the situation but opted to retain the images. Critical feedback has also been varied. ARC Raiders received low ratings, with reviewers specifically criticizing the use of AI. On the other hand, Clair Obscur was widely acclaimed, and its brief use of AI went largely unnoticed.

Developers appear to be attuned to the public’s skepticism about AI but are hesitant to fully abandon its use. After AI assets surfaced in Black Ops 7, Activision stated that the technology serves to “empower” developers rather than replace them. When questioned about AI in Battlefield 6, EA Vice President Rebecka Coutaz described the technology as tempting but assured it would not be part of the final release. Swen Vincke, CEO of Larian, the studio behind Baldur’s Gate 3, revealed that AI is being employed for ideation in their upcoming game Divinity, but insisted that the finished product would be crafted by humans. He alluded to why developers persist in using AI despite the usual backlash when its presence is uncovered.

“This is a tech-driven industry, so you try stuff,” he told Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier in an interview. “You can’t afford not to try things because if somebody finds the golden egg and you’re not using it, you’re dead.”

Comments from other CEOs reinforce Vincke’s point. Junghun Lee, the CEO of ARC Raiders’ parent company Nexon, said in an interview that, “It’s important to assume that every game company is now using AI.”

The problem is, though, gen AI doesn’t yet seem to be the golden egg its supporters want people to believe it is. Last year, Keywords Studios, a game development services company, published a report on creating a 2D video game using only gen-AI tools. The company claimed that gen-AI tools can streamline some development processes but ultimately cannot replace the work of human talent. Discovering gen AI in Call of Duty and Pax Romana was possible precisely because of the low-quality of the images that were found. With Ubisoft’s interactive gen-AI NPCs, the dialogue they spout sounds unnatural and stilted. Players in the 2025 Chinese martial arts MMORPG Where Winds Meet are manipulating its AI chatbot NPCs to break the game, just like Fortnite players were able to make AI-powered Darth Vader swear.

For all the promises of gen AI, its current results do not live up to expectations. So why is it everywhere?

One reason is the competitive edge AI might but currently can’t provide that Swen Vincke alluded to in his interview with Bloomberg. Another reason is also the simplest: it’s the economy, stupid. Despite inflation, flagging consumer confidence and spending, and rising unemployment, the stock market is still booming, propped up by the billions and billions of dollars being poured into AI tech. Game makers in search of capital to keep business and profits going want in on that. Announcing AI initiatives and touting the use of AI tools — even if those tools have a relatively minor impact on the final product — can be a way to signal to AI-eager investors that a game company is worth their money.

That might explain why the majority of gen-AI’s supporters in gaming come from the C-suite of AAA studios and not smaller indie outfits who almost universally revile the tech. Indies face the same economic pressure as bigger studios but have far fewer resources to navigate those pressures. Ostensibly, indie developers are the ones who stand to benefit the most from the tech but, so far, are its biggest opponents. They are pushing back against the assertion that gen AI is everywhere, being used by everybody, with some marking their games with anti-AI logos proclaiming their games were made wholly by humans.

For some indie developers, using gen AI defeats the purpose of game making entirely. The challenge of coming up with ideas and solutions to development problems — the things gen AI is supposed to automate — is a big part of game making’s appeal to them. There are also moral and environmental implications indie developers seem especially sensitive to. Gen-AI outputs are cobbled from existing bodies of work that were often used without consent or compensation. AI data centers are notorious for consumptive energy usage and polluting their surrounding areas, which are increasingly focused in low-income and minority communities.
With its unrealized promises and so-far shoddy outputs, it’s easy to think of gen AI as gaming’s next flash in the pan the way NFTs were. But with gaming’s biggest companies increasingly reporting their use, gen AI will remain a lightning rod in game development — until the tech improves, or, like with NFTs, the bubble pops.