One of the most anticipated games of 2026, Crimson Desert, has been slammed by gamers for the use of Generative AI. The developers of the game officially came out on Twitter/X to admit to the usage of Gen AI for assets.
It is no news that more and more AAA developers are leaning towards the over-reliance on Generative AI as well as other forms of AI usage in new and upcoming games. This is reciprocated through technology, which is also moving towards implementing AI in computer-generated visuals.
NVIDIA just revealed its newest iteration of DLSS 5 technology. Something that was supposed to bridge the gap between issues with frame rate and resolution is now being put aside for a generative AI filter that looks at the games. Gamers obviously are not happy about this at all.
Crimson Desert devs admitted to using generative AI
Crimson Desert had been in development for more than half a decade, and the amount of work put into it shows when you step into its world. Things may not always be coherent in this experience, stories may not make sense, and even most of the system mechanics could be too convoluted to the point of annoyance.
But sometimes that natural jank is the marker that identifies that the product was made with a lot of thought and care. So to find out that there was significant usage of generative AI for assets in the game is a bit of a downer.
The AI-generated asset was originally discovered by a user on the Crimson Desert subreddit named u/Rex_Spy. They found a classical painting inside the game, which clearly has the signature distorted designs that are usually found in badly made generative AI creations.
Ex-Blizzard President shot at users criticizing generative AI
Social media has reacted to the problematic discovery with mixed reactions. Because some of the gamers just don’t care about the slow encroachment of AI in games. While others have strongly condemned the usage.
Amidst all of these, the Ex-President of Blizzard came out in support of Generative AI in video games, encouraging the developers of Crimson Desert to not “bend over few folks who can’t accept the reality that AI will be in every single thing.”
Most users on the platform, as well as gamers, were seriously appalled by the statement, but there were also a few who sided with Mike’s sentiments. Developer Pearly Abyss has not added to this side of the drama; rather, the developer took to the platformer to address the game’s support for Intel Arc GPUs.
They have confirmed that support for the hardware will come soon, but players will have to wait a bit. In the meantime, the game just got a new patch update, which makes performance even better on existing systems.
