Larian Exploring AI Doesn't Make Them "Evil," Says Fellow Game Dev

The reaction comes after Laurian Studios CEO Sven Vincke admitted that his studio is looking to dominate the gaming industry with AI, specifically generative AI, during the development of the recently announced Divinity. That said, a fellow CEO and developer offered little security for what has become an increasingly difficult situation for studios and publishers to navigate.

The Astronauts CEO Adrian Chmielarz, head of the team that brought The Vanishing of Ethan Carter to gamers, recently spoke with TechRaptor about the predicament Winke finds himself in.

Notably, Chmielarz claimed that this was later clarified with the message that Larian was “a bit ominous”.

“[Larian] A bit unlucky,” Chmielarz said. “I think Larian is definitely not bad. I see from what they wrote [on Dec 18] That they're… doing some deep soul-searching about what exactly is going on for Larian going forward, and we'll see what happens.”

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For what it's worth, Vinke has claimed that Divinity's final product will be AI-free, but that “nobody wants to do it” for tasks like “cleaning motion capture data” and “automated retargeting” that will ultimately help streamline processes.

In a follow-up, Chmielarz noted that when the day comes that AI-generated concept art is “excellent,” it will “depend on a studio how much AI they want to invite into their development process.”

For Chmielarz, though, that invitation doesn't exist.

“With Witchfire, that door is firmly closed,” Chmillarz said of his studio's in-the-works game. “We started the game before AI was a thing, and we'll finish it without a single element created by AI.”

While fans were clearly disappointed, other studio heads were far less critical of the AI use.

Following the comments that set the gaming world on fire, other studio heads had their own take on the AI debate, including Warhorse Studios boss Daniel Varva, whose team delivered Game of the Year contender Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.

“I'm not a fan of AI-generated art, but anyway, it's time to face reality. AI is here to stay with us,” Vavra wrote on Twitter. “As scary as it may be, it is what it is. … If AI can help me make an epic game a year with a small team like in the old days, I'm all for it.”

Elsewhere, CD Projekt Red co-CEO Michael Nowakowski noted in an earnings call that there were “significant” benefits to using AI before noting that the studio was using it in “production areas.” That's just a sample of what was said in the hours and days after Winke's comments.

While we're nowhere near the prospect of AI becoming widely accepted, it seems that studios will be forced into a position of accepting which side they'll be on.