Baldur’s Gate 3 Studio Upsets Gamers, Larian Outlines Gen AI Usage

Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian Studios has been under fire this week after outlining the way it uses AI during game development.

I think we can all agree that AI usage in games should be kept to a minimum. In fact the latest expansion for Alan Wake 2, The Lakehouse, is a pretty damning critique of why AI can’t be a stand-in for a human brain so go check that out if you’re interested.

Larian Studios’ Swen Vincke was recently interviewed by GameSpot and spoke about the place AI has within the company and how it’s being used on the studio’s next game, Divinity.

In short Vincke said tools are used for inspiration purposes before actual human beings put the work into the game, and it’s mostly used for things like PowerPoints and other bits of research/planning.

Despite there being no generative AI in the game itself gamers have damned the studio regardless, prompting a response from Vincke to reiterate what was said during the interview.

“We’re not ‘pushing hard’ for, or replacing concept artists with AI” began Vincke, “We use AI tools to explore references, just like we use Google and art books.

“At the very early ideation stages we use it as a rough outline for composition which we replace with original concept art. There is no comparison.”

Unfortunately gamers still aren’t buying it though, believing Divinity does indeed use more AI than Larian Studios is letting on.

Bigger Than Baldur’s Gate 3

One of the main reasons gamers are suspecting AI shortcuts is what’s been said about Larian’s newly announced Divinity game.

The studio has teased that it’ll be its biggest game yet, which is huge considering Baldur’s Gate 3 easily won Game Of The Year.

Divinity is also said to have a shorter development window than the last Baldur’s Gate game though, and it’s those two previous points that have gamers sceptical.

It’s not exactly damning evidence though because Divinity could indeed be bigger than Baldur’s Gate 3 without necessarily having a larger world.

The scale of a game is measured by several different factors so we’ll have to wait and see what kind of mechanics and story choices will be available in Divinity compared to Baldur’s Gate 3.

It’s one to keep an eye on for sure, but given the credit Larian Studios earned for Baldur’s Gate 3 it feels unlikely that it’d risk tarnishing its reputation with generative AI, even if it’d speed up development of its next game.