With the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, enthusiasts criticized Activision for in-game calling cards that appeared to be created using generative AI.
The calling cards in question belong to two specific calling cards: one that belongs to the “Jack of All Trades” campaign challenge, and one that belongs to the “Embrace the Nightmare” campaign endgame challenge. These cards, to members of the Call of Duty community, look similar to the AI Studio Ghibli recreations that have been circulating online for the past few months.
Activision declared that AI was used during the development of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 on the game’s Steam page. The required disclaimer states: “Our team uses generative AI tools to assist in the development of some game assets.” Although the disclaimer does not specify which assets were created using AI, players have assumed that these calling cards are an obvious example.
These calling cards were circulated online on both social media and the game’s Reddit page. Reactions have been mixed, with some outraged by the use of AI evident in full-price video games. User Commercial_Pirate501 wrote: “It costs $96 in my country and over $130 for the Vault edition lol. I personally enjoy this game, but this… [a] That’s a crazy amount for a game that includes a ton of AI-generated content. ”
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Another Reddit user, Loqh9, summed up their thoughts more succinctly, writing, “Damn, this is terrible.”
Others are indifferent to the potential use of AI. For example, there was M3Festof1l on X who commented, “This looks normal. I don’t care who or what created the image, as long as it looks normal.” Of course, these are just a few opinions in a broader discussion about both the use of AI in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and game development as a whole.
Eurogamer reached out to Activision to find out if these calling cards and others were created using generative AI.
Earlier this year, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that “Microsoft is thriving” after the company laid off 9,000 employees in its AI double down. Microsoft previously acquired Activision Blizzard at the end of 2023.
