The Effects of AI on Gaming in the coming decade

[Kaching999]

Seeing the recent push for AI in the gaming industry despite the backlash it has received by gamers,

• How do you think it will affect gaming and upcoming games in the coming decade?
• Will they hype of the AI bandwagon die down or will it actually have some lasting implications?
• What do you think can be some good use cases for AI in games and also in what kind of games?
• What do you think should absolutely not utilize AI?(like XBOX's stupid MUSE)
• Do you want AI to be integrated in games or are you completely against it?

 

[Skoomahed]

What do you think can be some good use cases for AI in games and also in what kind of games?

A use case i can think of is unique dialogs for NPCs in open-world sandbox type of games. Having NPCs dynamically react to your actions sounds interesting and immersive. I saw a video sometime ago where someone made a mod for skyrim where it made use of ChatGPT. They made a follower who basically listens to your voice and then responds accordingly. Of course, it was rough around the edges, the latency between when you said something and when the follower made a response but the end result was pretty cool. Now, i don't know how feasible this could be if you tried to apply it to EVERY npc in the game. But the idea of having at least your close companions make use of Gen AI for dialogs seems pretty cool to me. Of course, there is the other challenge of voicing them.

Though, right now. What would be more exciting to me is decent optimisation day-1.

 

[Kaching999]

apply it to EVERY npc in the game

That would definitely be very cool imagine something like GTA where you can walk up to any NPC and have an actual conversation, this is probably possible but only with something like a 4090 or a 5090 and has most probably not been implemented because of that reason, it could be though once there are more efficient 1b or 2b models and then add the voice recognition to that.

Currently I have seen these two:

I found the second one to be quite good and would benefit from a possible inclusion in a game like NFS.

 

[meizul]

Generative AI gameplay has no place and same goes for AI generated scripts, dialogues and game designs but it could be a good use for say bots in some FPS games or like an inbuilt tailored helper in MMOs and would probably be used in some capacity to design assets and textures, also the in game items available for purchase like skins and all should be labelled as AI generated to allow people to know what they are buying unlike COD when they literally sold generated slop to people. The devs could allow users to use AI for customization like in zoopunk above, but it would have to at least look good and not like the early versions.

 

[Kaching999]

Steam Players Want To Filter Out Games That Use Generative AI
In a steam forum's post a user suggested:

Allow players to filter out games made with Gen AI

Next Fest February is coming up and I don't have any interest in playing demos from games that use Generative AI in their development. It would be good if an option was added to filter these games in the same way players can already filter Adult/NSFW content.

and in the span of a month the thread has had over 500 comments with most of them agreeing with the take.

Source: Steam community, Insider Gaming

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I also came across another article which confuses procedural generation for "AI in gaming" and how it is "changing the gaming landscape" .

 

[meizul]

AI in games is going to be the next RTX move from Nvidia, they are going to push it the same way they did with RTX and that is probably why there was heavy emphasis on AI performance in the 50 series launch, I just hope that people don't fall for it like they did for RT

 

[Kaching999]

Call of Duty Admits It's Using AI-Generated Assets​

Activision has been forced to break its silence and admit to using generative AI to develop some Call of Duty assets. The company had ignored allegations since they first gained traction during the Modern Warfare 3 era. However, a specific policy change from Steam left Activision with no choice but to reveal the truth.

Players have long accused CoD of using AI, pointing to numerous suspicious in-game assets like skins, camos, and calling cards that looked oddly unnatural. One of the most controversial discoveries was the zombie Santa Claus loading screen art, which depicted a character with six fingers. However, that was just one high-profile case; fans had been sharing many other bizarre in-game artworks long before that.

Activision's admission of using generative AI comes via a brief disclaimer on Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s Steam page, stating, “Our team uses generative AI tools to help develop some in-game assets.” While the statement may seem harmless, it has sparked a backlash from the community, as the vague wording suggests Call of Duty might be selling AI-generated cosmetics—something most fans have no interest in paying for. Notably, Modern Warfare 3’s Steam page hasn’t been updated with the new disclaimer, suggesting that it may not have used AI-generated art despite ongoing speculations.

The admission is most probably due to Steam's policy change.

In January 2025, Steam announced a new approach to games using AI-generated content, requiring developers to disclose AI usage in their game descriptions. Now, months later, this policy appears to have forced Activision to confirm the long-standing allegations. While this may be a step in the right direction, most players find it inadequate. Activision can still legally use generative AI to create in-game items and sell them to players. Moreover, the lack of transparency regarding Treyarch’s use of AI in Call of Duty’s art has left some gamers concerned about the future of the game’s cosmetics.

Source: GameRant

 

[meizul]

Call of Duty Admits It's Using AI-Generated Assets​

Activision has been forced to break its silence and admit to using generative AI to develop some Call of Duty assets. The company had ignored allegations since they first gained traction during the Modern Warfare 3 era. However, a specific policy change from Steam left Activision with no choice but to reveal the truth.

Players have long accused CoD of using AI, pointing to numerous suspicious in-game assets like skins, camos, and calling cards that looked oddly unnatural. One of the most controversial discoveries was the zombie Santa Claus loading screen art, which depicted a character with six fingers. However, that was just one high-profile case; fans had been sharing many other bizarre in-game artworks long before that.

Activision's admission of using generative AI comes via a brief disclaimer on Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s Steam page, stating, “Our team uses generative AI tools to help develop some in-game assets.” While the statement may seem harmless, it has sparked a backlash from the community, as the vague wording suggests Call of Duty might be selling AI-generated cosmetics—something most fans have no interest in paying for. Notably, Modern Warfare 3’s Steam page hasn’t been updated with the new disclaimer, suggesting that it may not have used AI-generated art despite ongoing speculations.

The admission is most probably due to Steam's policy change.

In January 2025, Steam announced a new approach to games using AI-generated content, requiring developers to disclose AI usage in their game descriptions. Now, months later, this policy appears to have forced Activision to confirm the long-standing allegations. While this may be a step in the right direction, most players find it inadequate. Activision can still legally use generative AI to create in-game items and sell them to players. Moreover, the lack of transparency regarding Treyarch’s use of AI in Call of Duty’s art has left some gamers concerned about the future of the game’s cosmetics.

View attachment 225256

Source: GameRant

Finally, it was pretty much unanimously agreed upon but at least they admit it now, just hope that they are legally required to tag individual items in game now.

 

[Kaching999]

Sony is experimenting with AI-powered PlayStation characters

Sony is working on a prototype AI-powered version of at least one its PlayStation game characters. According to the Verge, someone shared a video with them demonstrating Aloy the MC from the Horizon Forbidden franchise responding to queries in an AI voice with facial expressions. This was only ment for demonstration purposes internally at Sony.

According to the video the demo uses OpenAI’s whisper for speech-to-text, and both GPT-4 and Llama 3 for conversations and decision making. Sony’s has its own internal Emotional Voice Synthesis (EVS) system that it uses for speech generation and audio to face animation is powered by Sony’s own Mockingbird technology.

The video uploaded to YouTube by Verge has since been pulled down due to a copyright claim.

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Source: TheVerge

 

[MostlyHarmless]

A use case i can think of is unique dialogs for NPCs in open-world sandbox type of games. Having NPCs dynamically react to your actions sounds interesting and immersive. I saw a video sometime ago where someone made a mod for skyrim where it made use of ChatGPT. They made a follower who basically listens to your voice and then responds accordingly. Of course, it was rough around the edges, the latency between when you said something and when the follower made a response but the end result was pretty cool. Now, i don't know how feasible this could be if you tried to apply it to EVERY npc in the game. But the idea of having at least your close companions make use of Gen AI for dialogs seems pretty cool to me. Of course, there is the other challenge of voicing them.

Though, right now. What would be more exciting to me is decent optimisation day-1.

I was listening to a podcast between 2 game devs where they were discussing this exact topic.
According to them the ability to add a lot more dialog in response to player actions and have a lot more lore dialog etc has existed for a long time. They can programmatically generate and link together multiple lines of dialog or reactions from NPCs without the need for AI generation.
But it was found that once interaction or reactions go beyond a certain point players loose interest and the novelty of these features get lost.

 

[Kaching999]

They can programmatically generate and link together multiple lines of dialog or reactions from NPCs without the need for AI generation.

That is true but the problem with that is the dialogue still being somewhat limited to say the game and what is happening in it, and it also gets kinda repetitive but imagine being able to chat with a NPC about something going on in the world in real time, that is where AI generation could come into play, like in the post I have mentioned above with what Sony is trying to do.

 

[Futureized]

We are so much influenced about AI, that we discuss so much about it.
Infact, we ourselves or the developers/companies unsure what its going to be like.

As every business in past today, as its own .COM (web model) I strongly believe in future every company web based or offline will incorporate AI model in itself, to track everything..

 

[Kaching999]

incorporate AI model in itself, to track everything

That is inevitable data collection has been the bread and butter of companies since the start of time to understand and get on top of market trends but now it will be easier than ever for them to streamline the data collection and understand as to what information that data will actually provide.

 

[MostlyHarmless]

That is true but the problem with that is the dialogue still being somewhat limited to say the game and what is happening in it, and it also gets kinda repetitive but imagine being able to chat with a NPC about something going on in the world in real time, that is where AI generation could come into play, like in the post I have mentioned above with what Sony is trying to do.

The question is why would you want to chat with an AI about anything in a game? I personally play games to immerse myself into the game world and the escape from reality.
And even if you wanted to do that you can just open up chatgpt ask it to pretend to be a particular character and chat with it.

I think AI talk by CEOs and execs is more about signaling to investors and shareholders then about what will actually make better games, just like a few years ago NFTs were mentioned.

 

[Kaching999]

The question is why would you want to chat with an AI about anything in a game?

That is what I am also not too sure about. But then again "AI Girlfriends" exist in our world and for the loners who don't want to leave their basements if you couple those chatbots with 3D models who knows how much money can be milked out of them.

I think AI talk by CEOs and execs is more about signaling to investors and shareholders then about what will actually make better games, just like a few years ago NFTs were mentioned.

That is true, also it allows them to reduce the human input in the story as well which for them is profits hence best decision ever.