Generative AI has been showing up in games so often these days that I don’t know who to trust anymore. It seems like every day there’s another game studio or publisher plaguing their games with more gen AI voice acting, gen AI chat bots, or gen AI art.
Blizzard developers, however, have come out against gen AI, implying it’s not being used in the development of their games. Overwatch game director Aaron Keller told GameSpot last month that the team isn’t “comfortable” putting “AI-generated content out in front of players.” Former World of Warcraft franchise director John Hight explicitly said no gen AI was being used for the MMO last year, too.
Speaking to Game Informer in a recent interview, WoW: Midnight’s lead composer Leo Kaliski says gen AI isn’t being used to make the score either. “I think we here at Blizzard feel very lucky and happy that we’re not using generative AI,” he says. “We’re just writing what we think is cool, and are happy to do that.”
Kaliski’s comment almost makes it sound like all of Blizzard isn’t using gen AI, which could be true. But given the specificity of the past comments from each team and Blizzard president Johanna Faries’ recent statement to Eurogamer about how the company has a “centralized governance team specifically focused on AI and the role it can or should play in development cycles,” I want to be careful assuming too much here.
That said, I think it’s notable that Blizzard doesn’t seem to be trying to control its messaging around gen AI use, and that it might be allowing the teams to decide if they want to experiment with it or not. This is much different than a CEO who picks up a megaphone and shouts about the glory of AI and how it alone will pioneer the company’s future.
Unfortunately, a lot of this could change at any point, especially when we know just how much Blizzard’s parent company, Microsoft, is determined to inject gen AI into everything it creates. The best we can hope for is that the developers on the inside can keep it away from their games. I wouldn’t be surprised if the relatively new unions at Blizzard are trying to fight this wherever they can.
