The “Generative AI Debate” in the video game space, as well as other media industries, is currently one of the most heated debates that are going on right now. The “two sides” of this issue couldn’t be more different, either, as it’s a battle between the consumers who pay for this content and the developers/creators who are trying to make money from the content. That brings us to Activision Blizzard, which has been infamous in the past over its desire for more profit from its games, even if it means sacrificing quality. In a crossover for Diablo Immortal and Hearthstone, the developer/publisher appears to have used AI art for promotional materials, and fans are losing it because of it.
You can visit this Reddit thread for the proof of why the image above is indeed AI generated art, and while it might be “a little hard to see” at first when you just glance at the image and then look away, once you look at the finer details, like this user did, you can see all the flaws that come with something like an AI image.
After making their case, plenty of people not only backed them up and upvoted the thread, but they blasted both Activision Blizzard and Microsoft, which owns them now, for doing such a thing. Many of them also called out the special “cosmetic pet” within the game that costs $158 to get, yes, really, and noted that:
“Guess $158 pets aren’t enough to pay an artist to draw the image for their colab lmao.”
A hard thing to say, and yet, the proof is literally in the image itself. Instead of having an artist “work their magic” and make the image stand out in a way that would please longtime players or entice new ones to come try the two titles, the developer instead went for AI art, and gamers have called them out on it.
The sad thing here is that this directly ties into what has happened with Microsoft recently, as the company laid off 9000 workers a few weeks back, and much of that was due to the company investing heavily in AI on multiple fronts. Many feel that Microsoft, and all those within its umbrella, will be shifting more to AI-generated development to help “cut costs” and ensure their profits, which means that quality will be going down the drain if things like this image are any indication.
