Angry gamers are forcing studios to scrap or rethink new releases | Gamers suspicious of Al-generated content have forced developers to cancel titles and promise not to use the technology.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/01/26/gamer-protests-ai-slop-backlash/
12 Comments
Never doubt that a large group of angry gamers can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has
Or I think that’s what Margaret Mead said.
Anyways, yay! Public pressure worked. AI is not inevitable. We have a say.
Lame. I want more games, not less. I want game developers to use any and all technology available to bring down the cost and speed up the production cycles.
People felt this way about the internet pre 2000s too
As a gamer myself let me tell you that AI can be good if properly used.
If is used to mask shit optimization and gamers forced to use DLSS then is awful.
But if AI is used for NPC to communicate with the player in natural language and have them generate unique and non repetitive quests, would be amazing, every quest with unique experience.
I’ll say it. Some ai is okay. Ai ti simulate npc behaviour is pretty cool. It makes them free more real. Ai art and audio is lame however.
Ai is the next step to lower the bar to be a game dev. It will help making so many new indie games by people who either don’t have money to pay a dev or don’t or didn’t success in learning code and drawing to make games and that’s a very good thing, more indie game more possibility to get a gem.
They could use AI to make some kick ass games, but we all know that wouldn’t happen. They would use it to lay off developers and then produce sub standard AI slop and charge the same price. Gamers are right to oppose this shit.
Apparently conscientious consumers = “angry gamers”
I hate that this is the narrative when people finally act on the “if you don’t like it, vote with your wallet” concept we’re always being force-fed.
Boo-hoo for the poor AAA studios being bullied by these mean angry gamers that have been keeping them in business the whole time.
I dont care about AI. I just want fun games. Most of the games I replay came out around 2020
This is so dumb…can you imagine going on strike when movie studios started adding sound to silent films!
How dare they ruin the pure aesthetic of our glorious silent films!!!
Or similar to painters complaining that photographers aren’t artists.
What, are we going back to hand drawn animation? You can you that kind of computer…but not that new kind!!! No, no, no, you’ve got to use the good old “slow” computers. :/
My take on AI is that companies are using it entirely incorrectly. Try to replace your artists and engineers? Go to hell, no one should buy your game. Try to use AI to create procedural content not possible before AI? Better! I still wouldn’t be a huge fan of it as it’s not possible to train these models without the theft of an absurd about of intellectual property, but at least here you could argue that it’s adding something to the product rather than purely enshitifying it.
Meanwhile Arc Raiders is super popular right now and it uses AI voices. Seems like gamers don’t care if the game is fun.