Elon Musk has been making some big claims that his xAI Game Studio will deliver great AI-generated video games, but not everyone is convinced—most notably, Larian Studios.
On October 6th, 2025, Musk took to Twitter to claim that “The XAI game studio will release a great AI-generated game before the end of next year,” in response to a post that Grok could dynamically generate video games. One person who had an issue with this was Publishing Director at Larian Studios, Michael “Cromwelp” Douse.
In response, Douse posted a series of Tweets, beginning with, “Genuinely, what this industry needs is not more mathematically produced, psychologically trained gameplay loops, rather more expressions of worlds that folks are engaged with, or want to engage with.” He continued, “AI has its place as a tool, but we have all the tools in the world, and they aren’t compensating for the incredible lack of cogent direction. AI isn’t going to solve the big problem of the industry, which is leadership and vision.”
Douse made a compelling point about how the collapse of retail should have resulted in a direct relationship with developers/publishers and consumers, but instead became a “game of headless chickens racing to the P&L sheet,” finishing his statement with “AI isn’t going to solve that.” He states that every growing market has its roots, but with where the industry is currently, we need “more human-human expression, not less.”
Douse stressed the need for human involvement in the game-making process, saying, “Those who will succeed are those who are people building something for people,” going on to say, “There is no craft without the human touch; the relative skill issue, or ‘the exhibition of otherness.’ To turn games into digital, emotionless content is to abandon all resonance–which is why people play!”
While forms of AI technology have existed for years, only recently has it become a rapidly expanding and controversial industry—as companies seek to replace humans with algorithms. Whether this will even happen is debatable, as Musk has a long history of over-promising and under-delivering.
It’s interesting to see Larian Studios’ perspective on Elon Musk’s xAI gaming ambitions. The intersection of AI and gaming is certainly a hot topic right now, and it’s great to have discussions about its potential impact on the industry. Looking forward to seeing how this unfolds!
It’s definitely a fascinating take! Larian Studios has a strong reputation for storytelling in games, so their insights on AI could really shape how we think about narrative-driven experiences in the future. It’ll be interesting to see if Musk’s approach can complement or challenge that tradition.