System Shock Devs Pissed Off Gamers With AI Graphics; Blizzard Chooses Same Direction
Gamers have reacted sharply to the publication of an AI-generated image associated with the upcoming System Shock remake. Their dissatisfaction may soon spread to othr developers.
How do you quickly and easily alienate a wide range of fans? The answer to this question has been provided by publisher Prime Matter, which, as part of its promotional campaign for the upcoming remake of System Shock published a graphic of Shodan on Twitter, the fictional AI and main antagonist in the iconic game series. The image was accompanied by the following text:
There would be nothing unusual about this, but the above graphic was created using Midjourney, an AI-based graphics generation program that has been breaking records in recent months..
Great dissatisfaction
This, in turn - to put it mildly - did not please the gaming community, who were furious that the company used a soulless technology instead of letting a real artist earn some money. Some people even went a step further and announced that they would cancel their preorder for System Shock remake. This is shocking considering the support and patience that fans have shown to the developers until recently.
Below you can read some sample comments under Prime Matter's post.
"For the love of God, don't make me regret my pre-order," wrote @thedrcoomer.
"Time to cancel my order for the remake...," delares @s_ridenour.
"Sorry, but I have NO tolerance for AI graphics," writes @Tr4kZ3r4k.
"I love you guys, but AI art stinks and steals from real artists," declares @LotusMeSenpai.
"So you want me to demand a refund?," asks @ddc_cl.
Artificial intelligence is spreading.
Blizzard Entertainment may soon be facing the same reactions. This is because the company has filed a patent for a system that uses artificial intelligence to generate graphics based on a specific style (via GameRant).
It is worth noting the fact that Blizzard is not the only company that sees a place for AI technology in the future of the industry. In March, Ubisoft unveiled AI Ghostwriter tool to help screenwriters generate non-critical dialogues for NPCs.
Admittedly, the above examples do not mean that developers intend to fully entrust game development to machines, but the increasing look in this direction may raise concerns not so much for gamers, but for specialized graphic designers or programmers.
Finally, returning to System Shock - the remake will be released on May 30, this year. The game will hit PC first and PlayStation and Xbox consoles at a later date.
