Crimson Desert developer apologizes and promises to replace AI-generated art

The developer behind open-world RPG Crimson Desert has issued an official apology after players discovered multiple instances of AI-generated art in the game. Pearl Abyss posted on X that it released the game with 2D visual props created with “experimental generative AI tools” and forgot to replace them before launch.

Just a day after Crimson Desert’s launch, players took to social media to post reports about the potential use of generative AI. Pearl Abyss said on X that “following reports from our community, we have identified that some of these assets were unintentionally included in the final release.” Now, the game’s Steam page contains an AI-generated content disclosure, which states that “generative AI technology is used in an additional capacity when creating certain 2D prop items” which are then replaced.

Moving forward, Pearl Abyss said it would conduct a “full audit of all in-game assets and take steps to replace any affected content.” The developer said these updated assets would roll out in upcoming patches and that the team would internally review how it communicates with its player base to provide more “transparency and consistency.”

Pearl Abyss isn’t the only developer not to disclose the use of AI-generated assets in its games. Late last year, Sandfall Interactive was stripped of its Game of the Year and Leading Game awards from the Indie Game Awards for its use of generative AI in Chiaroscuro: Expedition 33 for placeholder textures that were mistakenly left in the game. Like Pearl Abyss, Embark Studios, the developer of Arc Raiders, is going back and replacing AI-generated material in its game after some backlash from its player base.