Sandfall Interactive will no longer use generative artificial intelligence — or “GenAI” — for its future projects, the makers of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 have stated.
Recently, the company admitted to using the controversial technology for some minor assets that, inadvertently or not, ended up in the final version of the game, making Clair Obscur the latest entry in a long spanning debate over the use of AI in game development.
The whole thing stems from an interview given by the studio to El País back in June, where game producer François Meurisse stated: “We use some AI, but not much. The key is that we were very clear about what we wanted to do.“
What followed was a series of statements left, right and center, culminating in the game losing its two major awards at the Indie Game Awards show due to the use of AI.
Well, no more: during a Q&A session hosted by publisher Kepler Interactive, the studio promised that, going forward, any and all projects undertaken by the company will be 100% human-made.
“It’s pretty hard to predict what the future [of the industry] will look like, but everything will be made by humans from us.”
Guillaume Broche, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s director
Broche also commented on the similar controversy faced by Baldur’s Gate 3 and Divinity studio, Larian, when they themselves mentioned the use of AI in some of its past projects: “Yeah, we’re aware of what’s been going on with that. But I can say, everything in the game [Clair Obscur, not Baldur’s Gate 3] is human-made. When AI first really came out in 2022, we’d already started on the game,” he continued. “It was just a new tool, we tried it, and we didn’t like it at all. It felt wrong.”
Artificial intelligence is nothing new, of course — GenAI is just the latest popular variation of a very old technology — and it has been present in gaming for ages: enemies that “understand and adapt” to the player’s moves? That’s called “predictive AI”, for instance.
The problem, according to its opposers, is the underlying issues that come up whenever generative applications are thrown in the picture: under the guise of cutting costs and facilitating faster deadline deliveries, some studios have been guilty of laying off voice actors but emulating their voices through software anyway, for one.
Another common practice is using apps that generate images through text-prompts: several studios, both large and small, have been found to use this capability in order to fast-track texture placement, virtual lighting fixtures and other visual aspects that would require a professional artist to develop otherwise.
Fact is, be it something as silly as an indie project or a major company using AI internally in weird scenarios, this technology is still the talk of town, and not always in a good light. The issue will definitely show up again, as this side of the industry does not show any signs of slowing down.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is available for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S|X and PC.
