Pocketpair communications director and publishing manager John Buckley affirmed the company, which is behind the popular Palworld, doesn’t use generative AI because players don’t want it.
Speaking to GamesRadar+, Buckley’s response was short and to the point: “Gamers don’t want it, and if the gamers don’t want it, I guess that’s it, right? Not much of a conversation to be had.”
The statement comes amidst studios continuing to toot the genAI horn, despite the fact that it has garnered a largely negative reception from developers in recent years, with many arguing that it is having a corrosive effect on the industry.
Last year, Buckley spoke to us about the studio’s anti-genAI stance in an interview, saying Pocketpair “doesn’t believe in it.” This was said in the context of the company being interested in helping to fund and publish games from other developers, so long as the tech isn’t being used.
“People are going to say I’m lying, but these are just the hard facts. We don’t believe in it. We’re very upfront about it. If you’re big on AI stuff or your game is Web3 or uses NFTs, there are lots of publishers out there [who’ll talk to you], but we’re not the right partner for that,” Buckley said.
Speaking to GamesRadar+, Buckley elaborated further on those comments, tackling the public reception as well as Steam’s mandated AI usage disclosure.
“I’m sure some people are doing it,” he told the publication. “It’s not really for us. I personally can’t imagine it ever being too prominent. I’m sure there are some companies out there, some big companies, that are maybe using it to ‘save time.’ I don’t know. I don’t really think gen AI has much—I don’t want to call it a bubble, but I don’t know how much longer it’s gonna keep up. Even Steam is pushing back a certain amount on it.”
Buckley also makes a note of how some developers have started to clarify, unprompted, that their games are 100 percent human-made across emails and store pages.
“I don’t know if we need to now start saying this is 100 percent human-made,” Buckley added. “I think we should just all assume games are human-made unless said otherwise. I think it’s a bit dystopian that it might end up like that. We’ll have to put a Steam disclaimer, ‘This game is made by humans.’ That’s kind of sad to think about.”
When it comes to AI disclosure (or lack thereof), there have been plenty of recent examples. Owlcat Games confirmed the use of genAI to build its upcoming RPG, The Expanse: Osiris Reborn. Companies like Capcom have told investors that it intends to leverage the technology to “improve efficiency and productivity of game development.”
Some developers claim that they will use the technology, but not to create assets. There have been several cases of games shipping with AI-generated copy or imagery—Crimson Desert developer Pearl Abyss recently apologized to players for failing to disclose the use of genAI during production. The South Korean studio explained it created some placeholder assets using “experimental AI generative tools.” Some of those assets were subsequently found in the finished game.
Last year, Ubisoft and 11 Bit Studios issued similar apologies after placeholder assets produced using genAI were included in Anno 117: Pax Romana and The Alters.