Clair Obscur Expedition 33 won 9 awards at the annual 2025 Game Awards but, shortly after The Game Awards disqualified Expedition 33 due to their use of generative AI for placeholder assets. These assets where removed in a patch after being discovered by some players before the disqualification. In addition to loosing their Game Awards, they also lost the awards given to them by The Indie Game Awards which was Game of the Year and Best Debut.
This decision has started some heated debates over the gaming industry as a whole using AI in their games and how it should be used if at all. The argument could be made that AI helps speed up production time by offloading basic tasks that would normally take hours. Since there is no regulation on how AI used in the gaming industry, studios are free to use it in any way that way. Marketplaces like Steam do have AI disclosures but this notice is not required.
To me, the easiest way to solve this problem, no matter if you are for or against using AI in games, is to require a disclosure with the penalty of the game being removed from the marketplace if they lie. This way you can pick and choose the games you wanted to play based on that informed decision. You don’t want to support games made with AI? Then don’t, you would have the choice.
Personally I am a fan of AI. When used correctly it boosts productivity and helps me focus on more important aspects of my work. I have a feeling we will start seeing a lot of indie studios use more AI to help produce their games. I’m not saying the whole game should be made with AI or large portions. What I am saying is coding, copywriting, and many other small tasks like this can be offloaded to free up creation time in other areas. That helps small studios tremendously.
