Generative AI, and its use in video games, has, unfortunately, become the hot topic that it looks like we're going to end the year arguing about. It doesn't seem to have hurt the sales of the games wrapped up in it, though, as all four of Steam's best-selling paid games right now are connected to the most recent spate of AI accusations and confessions.
Arc Raiders, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Battlefield 6, and Baldur's Gate 3 are the four best-selling paid games on Steam right now, as highlighted by GermanStrands on Twitter. Those first three have either been accused of using AI during the development process or outright admitted it, while Baldur's Gate 3 has done neither, but it was the admission of Larian, its developer, that it used gen AI during the planning process of its next game, Divinity, that kickstarted all this.
Larian boss Swen Vincke admitted the development team behind Divinity used generative AI to "explore ideas," unaware of the backlash that confession would cause. The situation has snowballed since then, not only via fans turning on Larian and its processes, but via other, in most cases entirely unrelated, games getting caught in the crossfire....
