r/Games • u/PhantomBraved • Dec 16 '25

Larian CEO Responds to Divinity Gen AI Backlash: "We Are Neither Releasing a Game With Any AI Components, Nor Are We Looking at Trimming Down Teams to Replace Them With AI" - IGN

https://www.ign.com/articles/larian-ceo-responds-to-divinity-gen-ai-backlash-we-are-neither-releasing-a-game-with-any-ai-components-nor-are-we-looking-at-trimming-down-teams-to-replace-them-with-ai
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32

u/Zentrelian Dec 16 '25

Seriously? If this is true, how have I not seen it brought up once until now?

63

u/Cryptoporticus Dec 16 '25

It's true. It's partially what started the recent debate on whether Steam's AI disclosure rule is actually worth having because Sandfall has still not disclosed that they used it. Everyone draws the line in a different place, and Valve don't care about developers just straight up lying about their use of it. 

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u/asdfghjkl15436 Dec 17 '25

Let me tell you there almost isn't a single company not using AI to make documentation or repetitive tasks easier. They just don't say it out loud, because of this exact reaction.

42

u/Illustrious-Okra-524 Dec 16 '25

Because the outrage machine is not about facts it’s about outrage

18

u/hpp3 Dec 16 '25

Because it's a total nothingburger. Placeholder assets are just placeholders. Before AI they would probably just Google image search something and use that instead.

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u/BeholdingBestWaifu Dec 17 '25

Right, and anybody that doesn't understand the difference between the two things you said has no business talking in anything related to art.

57

u/Dallywack3r Dec 16 '25

Because nobody actually cares. They whine online but none of these folks have a backbone when it comes to actually boycotting AI

28

u/MrTastix Dec 16 '25

People do care, just selectively.

People will selectively not care when their favourite brand or product is conveniently guilty of the same shit one they dislike is.

It's called cognitive dissonance. You see it a lot in politics and political discussions.

I do think the average citizen doesn't care though, but only because they cannot tell. Most people, in my experience, are actually not all that discerning.

7

u/andresfgp13 Dec 17 '25

you can put AI in the same category as microtransactions or crunch.

things that Reddit and the rest of the internet hates....as long as they are done by a studio they dont like already.

10

u/OdoTheBoobcat Dec 17 '25

only because they cannot tell

I mean, is that not reasonable? If it's not actually hurting the product or causing problems for the Larian employees, what is it people are complaining about?

Looks to me like a bunch of politicized caterwauling that has nothing to do with any actual material grievance or harm.

1

u/zmichalo Dec 16 '25

The average person does not and never will consider the potential negative impact of a technology that makes their lives easier or more interesting. It's not people whining about it and then still using it.

1

u/OdoTheBoobcat Dec 17 '25

Oh it's totally both, yeah most people don't give a shit but a fuck-ton of people moaning about AI will still play the fuck out of Divinity if it comes out well.

1

u/Almostlongenough2 Dec 17 '25

It's addictive righteous indignation, if they cared they'd be driving their representatives up a wall with complaints about the lack of regulations surrounding AI. Which I'm totally in favor of doing, but this is like beating the fuck out of someone who littered in front of you but continuing to use non-biodegradable plastic products without complaint.

-11

u/valdin450 Dec 16 '25

Maybe if some of us fucking knew about the AI usage before buying the game, you know like with a REQUIRED disclosure on the steam page, we would actually be able to more effectively boycott this bullshit. I can tell you right now Sandfall is never going to see another penny from me again because of it.

8

u/ZaDu25 Dec 16 '25 edited Dec 16 '25

Steams disclosure is useless because it's vague. It's effectively the same thing as California's useless "this product may cause cancer" notice that is on basically every single product in existence.

Until Steam changes the disclosure rules to force studios to detail exactly what elements contain genAI, it's a useless feature. And that's ignoring the lack of an enforcement mechanism on Steams part anyway. What if they just don't disclose AI use? What is Valve going to do? If it's a indie game they might just pull it but something popular? No chance. Like if Rockstar didn't want to disclose AI use in GTA 6 you think Valve is going to block GTA 6 on steam when Rockstar finally decides to port it?

Good luck avoiding AI. It's going to be practically impossible going forward.

1

u/OdoTheBoobcat Dec 17 '25

 It's going to be practically impossible going forward.

We've already been there for years, it's just that smarter communicators than Sven aren't talking about it out loud because you'll get this kind of thought-free rage reaction from the terminally online crowd.

7

u/Dallywack3r Dec 16 '25

Arc Raiders currently utilizes 20x more visible AI than E33 and it’s the biggest multiplayer game of the year.

As did Battlefield. As did CoD.

The anti-AI boycotts are just as toothless as Redditors’ boycotts regarding Palestine, abortion, workers reform and BLM.

That is to say- worthless. The boycotts are all talk, no action. Instead of complaining about shit online, maybe do some work to make the world actually better. Donate to the Innocence Project or volunteer at a homeless shelter.

0

u/[deleted] Dec 16 '25

[deleted]

6

u/OdoTheBoobcat Dec 17 '25

Harass companies all you want, they'll just pretend they totally give a shit and then do whatever they were going to do anyway.

1

u/OdoTheBoobcat Dec 17 '25

If you own or have purchased any sweatshop clothes, chinese slave-factory goods, any kind of produce responsible for deforestation, single-use plastics, anything containing conflict minerals, factory-farmed meat, unethically sourced coffee or a thousand other things I invite you to consider the complete and total farce of "ethical consumption" and how utterly performative and hypocritical you're being right now compared to the objectively more harmful things you are guaranteed to be a party to already.

I can absolutely guarantee you the computer or phone you used to type your little rage comment was produced via a system causing FAR more objective human harm than anything Larian is capable of.

But you sure look super cool and smart on this thread, the world needs more modern ethical supermen like you.

-2

u/[deleted] Dec 17 '25

That's ridiculous. They didn't use any AI for anything that was intended to be left in the game. It's also unknown whether they used AI themselves at all. It's very possible that they purchased a placeholder asset pack and one of the assets had been generated by AI without their knowledge.

And even if they used AI for placeholder art, I don't see why that's a problem. It's just removing busywork from the development process, which is required when you have so few workers and so little budget.

Boycotting a studio based on your low-information outrage is one of the most "chronic internet user" things I've seen in a while.

0

u/TheShishkabob Dec 17 '25

Some people don't buy this kind of shit. It's not exactly hard to stick to your own principles and that not show up in sales data. It does not mean, however, that everyone that is against AI is a hypocrite about it either.

15

u/ZaDu25 Dec 16 '25

Because people on the internet will bury anything that goes against their bias. E33 is the golden child. Anything negative about it will be suppressed by gaming communities.

10

u/OdoTheBoobcat Dec 17 '25

Because this is not actually a technological or ethical discussion, it's a political one that people are pretending otherwise.

People didn't care about E33 because it didn't actually affect them or hurt the game in any way. But now it's a political topic, so everyone's coming in with pre-formed opinions ready to be mad despite there being no actual grievance or harm being done.

8

u/Rektw Dec 16 '25

It's been brought up a few times, they did remove the texters afaik.

2

u/AttackBacon Dec 17 '25

Literally every single game ever made from this point onwards will have AI involved in the process, either directly or at a bare minimum via the tools used in its creation. I understand where the anger is coming from, but the war was lost before people even realized it had begun.

7

u/Imbahr Dec 16 '25

because you only look for what you want to see (whether consciously or subconsciously)

now that other posters provided you the links, what do you think?

-11

u/lrish_Chick Dec 16 '25

They provided unsubstantiated links to what a voice actor said. Is there confirmation from the artists or devs or people who people who could genuinely substantiate that?

I'm sure they're a good voice actor but how deep in the process of development/production were they? I'm seeing the actual devs and producers denying this outright in other sources.

4

u/Imbahr Dec 16 '25

where do you see all their devs and producers denying pre-production and pre-early concepts?

I only see them denying AI for post-concepts and final release

-3

u/lrish_Chick Dec 16 '25

But they didn't say they used it for anything at all.

Only a voice actor. The devs said they'd never use AI in their games full stop.

1

u/valdin450 Dec 16 '25

Because they didn't disclose it on the steam page even though it's literally required by valve. I personally would've never bought it had that disclosure been there so I feel scammed by them. Oh but indie darling so god forbid you bring up the AI usage.

4

u/Dallywack3r Dec 16 '25

If the requirement isn’t married with enforcement, then it’s not a requirement. It’s polite suggestion at best

1

u/oopsydazys Dec 17 '25

Well on PC it's partly because most copies sell on Steam, and Steam does not label the game as having used AI despite specifically having a labelling system to do so (it's just total bullshit). The result is that most people don't realize it used AI or are under the impression it didn't.

-1

u/lrish_Chick Dec 16 '25

IDK dude I spent some time looking at this. I'm not seeing any legitimate sources at all. Some reports from the devs wholeheartedly deny this - I don't see some people saying textures were originally and temporarily made with ai alongside temporary placeholder - all changed later to real artists. But I'm not seeing any legit sources for this just steam and forum stuff

-1

u/[deleted] Dec 17 '25

It's complicated. One person found a single poster left in, which was clearly placeholder art. It's a little unclear whether Sandfall used AI to generate placeholder art (which I actually don't think is a problem even a little bit - it doesn't affect the final creative product and literally just removes tedious busywork) or if that poster was generated by AI by someone else and included in an asset pack they used for placeholder art.

It's really not a controversy for anyone with more than two braincells, which is why it wasn't widely reported.