This morning, the information broke that Larian Studios, developer of Baldur’s Gate 3 and the upcoming, just-announced Divinity, is outwardly utilizing generative AI behind the scenes for issues like idea artwork and placeholder textual content. The backlash has been swift and loud from the gaming neighborhood, and now Larian founder and sport director Swen Vincke is responding to make clear his remarks, affirming that Larian is “neither releasing a sport with any AI elements, nor are we trimming down groups to interchange them with AI,” and that AI is “one thing we’re continually discussing internally by way of the lens of creating everybody’s working day higher, not worse.”
The unique information comes from a Bloomberg interview with Vincke. In it, Vincke admits that Larian is “pushing exhausting” [Bloomberg’s phrasing] on generative AI, despite the fact that it hasn’t led to large good points in effectivity. Particularly, the studio is utilizing the know-how to “discover concepts, flesh out PowerPoint shows, develop idea artwork and write placeholder textual content.” [Bloomberg’s phrasing].
Vincke reassures that there will not be any AI-generated content material within the remaining model of Divinity. “Every part is human actors; we’re writing the whole lot ourselves.” But it surely feels like this method is not going over easily with everybody. Bloomberg’s piece acknowledges that some internally at Larian have pushed again, although Vincke says, “I believe at this level everybody on the firm is kind of OK with the best way we’re utilizing it.”
This information hasn’t gone over tremendous effectively with the neighborhood, although. On Bluesky, Larian is being lambasted by plenty of people throughout the sport improvement neighborhood, together with some former Larian staff. “contemplate my suggestions: i liked working at @larianstudios.com till AI,” writes a former Larian surroundings artist. “rethink and alter your path, like, yesterday. present your staff some respect. they’re world-class & don’t want AI help to provide you with wonderful concepts.”
The Divinity and Baldur’s Gate 3 communities have a considerably extra divided response, with some defending its use for concepting, although there’s nonetheless a big quantity of backlash. A number of commenters have identified that video games equivalent to The Alters suffered from important fan anger over found generative AI use, however are prepared to forgive Larian for a similar offense.
In response to this backlash, Vincke has issued IGN a prolonged follow-up response, which we have revealed right here in full:
We’ve been constantly rising our pool of idea artists , writers and story-tellers, are actively placing collectively author rooms, casting and recording performances from actors and hiring translators.
Since idea artwork is being referred to as out explicitly – we have now 23 idea artists and have job openings for extra. These artists are creating idea artwork day in day trip for ideation and manufacturing use.
Every part we do is incremental and geared toward having folks spend extra time creating.
Any ML instrument used effectively is additive to a artistic staff or particular person’s workflow, not a alternative for his or her ability or craft.
We’re researching and understanding the slicing fringe of ML as a toolset for creatives to make use of and see the way it could make their day-to-day lives simpler, which can allow us to make higher video games.
We’re neither releasing a sport with any AI elements, nor are we trimming down groups to interchange them with AI.
Whereas I perceive it is a topic that invokes a variety of emotion, it is one thing we’re continually discussing internally by way of the lens of creating everybody’s working day higher, not worse.
Vincke then adopted up additional with a publish on Twitter/X:
Holy fuck guys we’re not “pushing exhausting” for or changing idea artists with AI.
We’ve a staff of 72 artists of which 23 are idea artists and we’re hiring extra. The artwork they create is authentic and I’m very happy with what they do.
I used to be requested explicitly about idea artwork…
— Swen Vincke @the place? (@LarAtLarian) December 16, 2025
The publish reads:
Holy fuck guys we’re not “pushing exhausting” for or changing idea artists with AI.
We’ve a staff of 72 artists of which 23 are idea artists and we’re hiring extra. The artwork they create is authentic and I’m very happy with what they do.
I used to be requested explicitly about idea artwork and our use of Gen AI. I answered that we use it to discover issues. I didn’t say we use it to develop idea artwork. The artists try this. And they’re certainly world class artists.
We use AI instruments to discover references, identical to we use google and artwork books. On the very early ideation levels we use it as a tough define for composition which we change with authentic idea artwork. There isn’t a comparability.
I talked about how we use ML right here if you want to know extra:
https://gamespot.com/articles/baldurs-gate-3-dev-embraces-machine-learning-for-tasks-that-nobody-wants-to-do/1100-6531123/We have employed creatives for his or her expertise, not for his or her means to do what a machine suggests, however they’ll experiment with these instruments to make their lives simpler.
This dialogue comes amid a slate of interviews with Vincke following the announcement of Larian’s subsequent sport, Divinity, at The Sport Awards final week. We had our personal interview with Vincke, which you can learn in full right here, and elsewhere Vincke has confirmed Divinity will actually be a turn-based RPG. We have been slowly compiling the whole lot we learn about Divinity thus far proper right here.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Acquired a narrative tip? Ship it to rvalentine@ign.com.
