Summer Game Fest is here, so get ready for a lot of, 'Ugh, that game with the cool trailer used AI'

Crystal Dynamics and Flying Wild Hog unveiled a new trailer for Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis during yesterday's State of Play showcase, and fans seemed pretty happy: As one commenter on YouTube put it, "That's the Lara I remember!" But shortly after that, a content disclosure popped up on the game's Steam page, and there was somewhat less happiness about that, because yes: AI is being used in the game's development.

"AI-assisted tools were used during development to support some early exploration and temporary development content," it says. "Any AI-assisted assets were either replaced or refined by humans in order to maintain the creative and artistic vision of the development team."

Predictably, Crystal Dynamics leaned into the humanity of the whole thing in a follow-up statement provided to Eurogamer: "At Crystal Dynamics, we leverage AI tools to help our teams iterate on ideas faster and more efficiently, while ensuring that all finished content in the final product is human-crafted. Our goal is to empower the creativity and flexibility of our developers to deliver the highest-quality experiences for players everywhere."

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I do wonder: If you have to replace AI-generated content to maintain your "creative and artistic vision," then why not just roll with that creative and artistic vision in the first place? You save yourself the effort of having to clean up machine-generated garbo that, by your own admission, isn't worthy of being in the game, and you eliminate the risk of some of that garbo getting missed and ending up live, where it will invariably anger some portion of your players.

The reaction to the use of AI in Legacy of Atlantis' development among the Tomb Raider community is somewhat more mixed: Plenty of prominent disappointment, but also tolerance for its use in the early stages of the game's development, especially since anything made with AI was reportedly thrown out anyway. This Reddit thread, for instance, has some interesting and thoughtful discussion on the matter:

(Image credit: Reddit)

I also detect a certain tired resignation about the whole thing in some other comments: We kept raging over the use of AI in game development, and game developers apologized but kept doing it anyway—in limited, early, and temporary ways, sure, but there it is nevertheless. At some point you just get worn down, right?

There are too many other things to worry about, and if the only way to meaningfully protest AI in game development is to not buy those games, well—it's just early development, right? After denial and anger comes bargaining.

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To an extent, Tomb Raider's post-trailer Steam disclosure represents the new reality: We're going to be seeing a lot of new games announced over the next several days as Summer Game Fest week gets up to speed, and alongside that we're going to be seeing a lot more of these AI disclosures. If you care about how AI is used in games, watching big showcases is going to become a tiring cycle of excitement, then doubt, then bargaining. Will this game soon post an AI disclosure? Did that game use generative AI instead of hiring concept artists, and then just lie about it?

Anyway, Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis was also delayed, in case you hadn't heard: Instead of coming out this year, it's now slated for February 12, 2027.