Game News Developers and players are extremely disappointed… AI in video games does not do wonders for this studio's reputation
Publié le 12/03/2024 à 09:38
Share :
Owlcat Games disappointed a lot of people by publishing its latest job offer…
The developer of the latest Warhammer 40,000 game has released a new job offer for his next game. But this one has created a big controversy.
The Owlcat Games studio is single-handedly alienating the public and the industry!
Owlcat Games, studio derrière Warhammer 40,000 : Rogue Trader et Pathfinder : Wrath of the Righteous notably, has sparked controversy in recent days. Indeed, a job offer for a game projectmentioning the use of AI to create concepts sparked a wave of criticism within the art and gaming community. In the tasks requested of the candidate, it is thus mentioned “Concept generation using AI and modern tools”and in the required skills it is said that you must be “familiar with concept generation using advanced tools such as artificial neural networks and machine learning techniques such as Stable Diffusion, Midjourney and Dall-E”. Many artists and other video game players, as well as studio fans, said they were very disappointed to see such a job offer. They fear that the use of AI will compromise authenticity and originality game content. There are also always doubts about respecting copyright. Indeed, the images generated by AI are based on pre-existing data, in other words, artistic work already done by other people. In addition, there are always concerns about the impact of AI on jobs in the video game industry.
Owlcat assures us, no visuals created by AI in its games
Owlcat Games wanted clarified his intentions, in a response to a tweet. The studio states:
We would like to clarify this issue. We are using AI as a working tool for our future project, which is currently in the early stages of production.
AI will be used exclusively for additional work on concepts and to accelerate certain internal processes (for example, for creative research, inspiration or to coordinate our vision before starting the conceptualization itself).
The final version of the game will not feature any visuals generated by neural networks. The same goes for the final concepts. Everything will be original and drawn by professional artists.
On our current projects, Rogue Trader and Pathfinder, AI has not been used at all.
We are very sorry for causing confusion with the information about AI in this job description. We understand that without further explanation this may be misinterpreted, which is why we have removed this information.
Guys, we would like to clarify this issue. We use AI as a working tool for our future project, which is in the early stages of production right now.
AI will be used exclusively for additional work with concepts and speeding up some internal processes (for example, for creative⦗ Owlcat Games (@OwlcatGames) March 2, 2024
In another response, the studio clarified :
We will under no circumstances replace our artists with neural networks. All art from our games, including concepts, portraits, and more. are drawn exclusively by artists.
We use a neural network to find direction and inspiration before developing concepts for our next project, which is currently in its early stages and has not been announced.
AI has not been and will not be used in Pathfinder and Rogue Trader.
We will under no circumstances replace our artists with neural networks. All art in our games, including concepts, portraits, etc. drawn exclusively by artists.
We use a neural network to find direction and inspiration before developing concepts for our upcoming project, which is⦗ Owlcat Games (@OwlcatGames) March 2, 2024
Owlcat therefore ensures only use AI in the initial phases of development, to find inspiration or coordinate artistic direction that its artists will have to follow. It promises to never incorporate AI-generated art into the final product. But as you can imagine, the controversy persists due to ethical questions and potential implications for the industry, beyond the Owlcat studio. After this kind of announcements, the community could remain perplexed until the release of this future project still unknown.
See Xbox Game Pass on Microsoft
Warhammer 40,000 exceeds half a million sales
The latest game published by Owlcat Games is Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, the turn-based role-playing game, released in December. He recently crossed the threshold of 500,000 sales. The studio took the opportunity to launch the first major update, patch 1.1, with more than 1800 fixes brought to the game. Despite its niche nature, the game quickly found its audience, becoming a must-play for fans of the franchise. Owlcat Games also released the game soundtrack on major music streaming platforms. Composed by talents like Pawel Perepelica and Dmitri Silantyev, the soundtrack perfectly captures the atmosphere and essence of the universe.
Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader is available on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series.
Purchase guide
Fixed gaming PC: what configuration to play? Our 4 ultimate configurations at all prices
This page contains affiliate links to some products that JV has selected for you. Each purchase you make by clicking on one of these links will not cost you more, but the e-merchant will pay us a commission. The prices indicated in the article are those offered by the merchant sites at the time of publication of the article and these prices are likely to vary at the sole discretion of the merchant site without JV being responsible. informed. Learn more.