So recently one of the best games of 2025, specifically “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33”, gave up its “Game of the Year” awards after it was learned that the development team for that game used AI tools to assist with its creation. This was a fair choice to make, as most people feel that such awards should be given to games actually developed 100% by human talent.
AI is a crude crutch for the untalented, nothing more.
But with that said, I got to thinking about other games that find themselves in a similar situation. Specifically “Baldur’s Gate III”. Larian’s VEO Swen Vicke recently admitted that they use AI tools to do “behind the scenes” work on their motion capture and art assets, not just on their upcoming game “Divinity:, but also on BGIII.
This news has some fans rather upset, as you might imagine.
Now Swen defends the use of these tools, stating that they are only used to assist their team, speed up processes, and don’t replace actual artists. I’m sure that is true, at least to some extent, but there is no way that these tools aren’t replacing the work artists and developers used to do. These AI tools speed up work because it is doing tasks previously done by other staff, period. Perhaps those staff have been freed up to work on other tasks, but the problem is that with most corporations, those staff will just find themselves closer to being laid off, because of those AI tools.
The use of AI tools can never be normalized, or they will next be used to replace artists and developers. Corporations will see that these tools will save them even more labor costs, and suddenly those human artists and devs will be out of a job. That’s what corporations do.
But that’s neither here nor there.
As you may recall, back in 2023, “Baldur’s Gate III” was almost unanimously chosen as the “Game of the Year” by most gaming outlets. While that was two years ago now, they find themselves in the same place as “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33”, having won multiple GOTY awards, but having those awards sullied after Larian used AI tools in BGIII’s development cycle.
Simply put, should Larian give back those awards? Should they publicly renounce those GOTY awards from 2023, and let other games that were actually fully developed by human hands and minds claim that glory?
I know, I know… It was two years ago now. Who cares, right? Well, if that’s the case, then why are people screaming their lungs out about “Expedition 33”? I mean, their dev team did exactly the same thing that Larian did with BGIII.
Why is one game reviled for their use of AI tools, while the other gets a pass?
Personally, I think Larian has some explaining to do, especially after they only came clean about their use of AI when fans discovered these tools were obviously used on their upcoming game “Divinity”. I believe Larian wouldn’t have said anything about it, had they not been caught and basically to own up to it.
As far as I’m concerned, this makes “Starfield” the GOTY for 2023.
