Crystal Dynamics confirms AI use in Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis for early development

Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis confirms AI use: 'a tool that can help our teams'

Polygon Summer Game Fest 2026 Live game reveals, world premiere trailers, and what's next from 40+ developers, publishers, and hardware makers. Dive in→ After stirring controversy last week, Crystal Dynamics has offered clarity on how exactly generative AI was used in Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis' development. In an interview with Polygon, Crystal Dynamics experience director Jeff Adams explained that the tech was specifically used to create test assets. Crystal Dynamics dredged up some ongoing anxiety around generative AI's role in game development last Thursday, following Legacy of Atlantis' release date reveal at Summer Game Fest. Observers noticed that the game's Steam page featured an AI disclosure. The note said that generative AI was used for "ideation," which left a lot of room for interpretation. Adams gave Polygon more details on what exactly that means. "At Crystal Dynamics, we see AI as a tool that can help our team get the right answers faster," Adams told Polygon. "In early level development, we might have the idea for an in-game object. But we might not be sure if we want to take the time to have devs build it. What we can do is use a generative AI tool to visualize it in the world. If it works, we can move it into our traditional pipeline. From there, the team can concept it and build it. At the end, all the finished product in the final game will be human-crafted. We want to make it as easy as possible for our team to be able to make high-quality experiences. That's what the fans deserve." Judging by previous examples of studios disclosing their AI usage, Crystal Dynamics' explanation isn't likely to placate detractors of the tech. High-profile developers like Larian Studios and Sandfall Interactive have played with fire recently by admitting that generative AI was used to make their projects, drawing heat on social media. Subscribe to the newsletter for AI-in-games insight Join the newsletter for clear coverage of generative AI in game development: studio disclosures, community debates, and how tools are used in production -- plus broader industry stories so you stay informed on gaming's evolving landscape. Get Updates By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime. That isn't stopping developers from being vocal about using the tech, though. Generative AI was a recurring theme in and around this year's Summer Game Fest. Aside from Crystal Dynamics, Sega caught flack for confirming that AI was used to create Crazy Taxi: World Tour. Square Enix raised suspicions after sharing cover art for Kingdom Hearts Collection I-III that fans theorized was AI-generated. The tech had a presence at Summer Game Fest's in-person press and creator event too. Seed, an upcoming MMO touting its use of generative AI, was playable at the show. Many studios seem to be standing by the tech for now, regardless of the optics. Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis uses gen AI -- Amazon is fine with that GM of Amazon Games Jeff Gattis spoke to Polygon about why the company is 'bullish' on AI Posts 29

Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis developer says they are using generative AI

But despite admitting that they use "AI as a tool that can help our team get the right answers faster", they claim the "final game will be human-crafted". Judging by social media, gaming forums, and Gamereactor's comment sections, AI-generated games aren't in high demand. This has led countless developers to distance themselves from the technology, insisting that their games are developed by hand. Just yesterday, we reported that The Coalition, the studio behind the upcoming Gears of War: E-Day, has confirmed that the game was developed entirely without AI. But not everyone believes in this. Ubisoft is already heavily investing in the use of AI in various forms, Sega recently admitted to some AI development in Crazy Taxi: World Tour, and now Crystal Dynamics is joining this group as well. In an interview with Polygon, experience director Jeff Adams says that they are using AI in the development of the upcoming Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis: "At Crystal Dynamics, we see AI as a tool that can help our team get the right answers faster. In early level development, we might have the idea for an in-game object. But we might not be sure if we want to take the time to have devs build it. What we can do is use a generative AI tool to visualize it in the world. If it works, we can move it into our traditional pipeline. From there, the team can concept it and build it. At the end, all the finished product in the final game will be human-crafted. We want to make it as easy as possible for our team to be able to make high-quality experiences. That's what the fans deserve." As expected, there is already a heated debate over whether it is really possible to include an ingredient in the dough, then claim that it was removed just before it went into the oven, and therefore the final product does not contain that ingredient. If the title was developed using AI, is it really possible to claim in the end that the finished game was created entirely by humans, what do you think?

Crystal Dynamics Uses GenAI Tools with Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis to "Get the Right Answers Faster"

Last week, shortly after Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis appeared in the State of Play showcase, when the game's Steam page went live, players quickly noticed the page included a Generative AI (GenAI) use disclosure. Since then, we've been trying to get more clarity from developer Crystal Dynamics on how the studio uses GenAI, and experience director Jeff Adams has somewhat clarified its use, identifying GenAI as a "tool," one that helps the team "get the right answers faster." Adams comments come from an interview with Game Informer, which also includes a short video of his answer to the question of how GenAI is used in Crystal Dynamics' development pipeline and features a PR representative for the studio stepping in before Adams could dig further into it. He does, at least, provide an example of how the studio is using the technology, which essentially amounts to them using it as a means of concepting ideas without having to put in the time to build assets they'll ultimately never use. "At Crystal Dynamics, we see AI as a tool that can help our team get to the right answers faster," Adams begins. "So, let me give you an example of what that looks like. So, say in early level development, we have an idea for an object, but we're not sure whether or not we want to take the dev time to build it. We can use a Generative AI tool to help us visualize that object in the world. And if it works, we'll then move it to our traditional pipeline." "From there, the team will concept it, they'll build it, and we'll make sure that all the finished content in the final game is human-crafted. It's really important for us that our team has the tools to make the highest quality experience possible. Our fans deserve nothing less than that." The follow-up question tries to get at the heart of how much of that initial GenAI asset is left by the time the team decides they're going to use it, and it's at that point that the PR representative steps in to end the conversation. "I think what I'd probably say is I think we've said all we want to say about it now," the representative says. "Once the game comes out and everyone can see how amazing it is, we'd probably be more comfortable. I think in this early moment, I just wouldn't want us to like start talking about that." Adams then adds, "We just want to make it as easy as possible for us to make high-quality game experiences. That's really the important thing." GenAI tools won't stop being controversial anytime soon, though the way in which Adams describes the team using it here will likely be how we keep seeing it brought up in the future, as it also doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon. While players can and will continue to voice their opinions on studios that use GenAI, the reality is we've not yet seen players vote with their wallets against studios that use the technology in a meaningful way. If that does start to happen, then perhaps we'll stop seeing the technology adopted. In the meantime, we'll just have to hope there's no clear GenAI-slop right in players' faces when they load up Legacy of Atlantis next year. Follow Wccftech on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds.