Following Larian Studios’ announcement of Divinity, generative AI has been the talk of the town. The team confirmed that it would explore the technology during pre-production, and it didn’t take long for the gaming community to explode.
In the aftermath, games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 also received criticism for making use of AI. The discussion eventually grew big enough that other developers like Warhorse Studios also got involved, but for all the negativity around AI, Steam’s current top 10 global best-sellers list tells a different story.
SteamDB shows that half of the games on the list come from studios that have already embraced AI.
In fact, three games on the list already use the technology. Both Arc Raiders and Where Winds Meet openly disclose their artificial intelligence use in the Steam description. These titles make use of the technology for NPC voice acting.
Similarly, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 also used generative AI for the creation of assets during pre-production, one of which was also left in the full release before being patched out eventually. The RPG was even disqualified from the Indie Game Awards recently for failing to disclose this fact.
As such, 30% of the top 10 games use generative AI. While neither Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 nor Baldur’s Gate 3 is confirmed to use artificial intelligence, both Larian and Warhorse have embraced the technology. Generative AI is being explored for Divinity already, and Daniel Vavra’s comments suggest that Warhorse Studios will likely follow suit.
All put together, half of the top 10 list is made up of games from studios that have adopted generative AI.
Although this doesn’t come as the biggest surprise, this list indicates a general trend within the industry. Many developers have already come to terms with the fact that generative AI is here and are now attempting to use it for the creation of AAA titles.
Even veterans like Hideo Kojima have acknowledged that there’s no real way around the fact that artificial intelligence will impact games moving forward.
