The use of generative AI in video games is a very hot topic right now, with almost every studio looking at this technology. Games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 have been criticized for their “sloppy” use of low-quality AI, but The Outer Worlds 2 director Brandon Adler says Obsidian Entertainment won’t use AI to replace what it’s already good at.
Since the studio’s founding in 2003, Obsidian Entertainment has been known for its great writing and strong art direction, and The Outer Worlds 2 certainly shows those two. some Obsidian has no plans to use the technology in its games.
“The great parts of Obsidian – the quests, the characters, the story – shouldn’t be outsourced,” Adler explained on award-winning games journalist Simon Parkin’s My Perfect Console podcast.
While some aspects of future Obsidian games may be outsourced to different companies with their own processes, the core of the developer’s games will be created in-house by real people. “These are things we have to keep to ourselves,” Adler continued. “I would never outsource what I am good at to AI.”
“We take pride in our characters and world-building, and it would be a shame to see it go.”
Adler explained that Obsidian would “never be used” [AI] for content creation,” and explained that replacing human-authored content with generation tools was “absolutely off the table for the team.”
Instead, Obsidian wants to focus on the “human element,” and Alder said, “They put the storytelling that we wanted to put in there, and as long as we keep pushing that forward, I think we’ll probably be okay.”
That’s not to say Obsidian Entertainment doesn’t use AI in some form, though. The director of The Outer Worlds 2 explains that the tool is used to summarize meeting notes. Additionally, this technology is used for research purposes to generate lists of books to read related to a particular topic. However, when it comes to quest design, story, and content creation, AI is out of the question.
“At this point, we’re proud of Obsidian’s storytelling,” the game director said. “We take pride in our characters and world-building, and it would be a shame to see it go.”
Questions about AI are important, especially as gaming executives like Epic Games’ Tim Sweeney push to remove AI disclosures from gaming store shelves. Earlier this year, it was claimed that Microsoft was encouraging all video game studios to use some form of AI in their content creation, but Xbox head Phil Spencer insisted this was not the case.
“Creatively, I really leave it up to the team,” Spencer told IGN. “I’ve found that creative teams will use tools that make their job easier if it makes their job easier. A top-down mandate that says ‘you have to use a certain tool’ isn’t really the path to success. I look at my team, make tools available, and let it percolate organically.”
At least for now, and hopefully for the foreseeable future, The Outer Worlds 2 developers won’t be forced to use generative AI to rush content out. After all, Obsidian has already proven that it can release RPGs quickly despite its small size, so if there’s ever a team that doesn’t need to use AI, it’s this one.
