EA Clarifies Generative AI's Role in Battlefield 6 Development Amid Industry Debates

EA exec pinky-promises there's no GenAI in Battlefield 6, but does say it's 'Very seducing' like someone being lured to an early grave in a Hellraiser film

With EA now on the hook for $20 billion in the wake of its Saudi-and-Kushner-funded buyout, both the company and its new owners have been pretty obvious about their ambitions for AI-driven development to, somehow, miraculously help it start printing money quickly. Which is concerning. Also concerning: One of EA's biggest releases this year hits in just a few hours in the form of Battlefield 6. Is it going to give us our first taste of the AI future? You can breathe for now. In a chat with the BBC, EA VP general manager of Dice and Criterion promises that you won't run into anything made by GenAI in BF6. Phew. Time to take a big swig of coffee and see what else Coutaz has to say about the tech. Uh oh! Turns out it doesn't stop there. Although you won't see GenAI-made content in BF6, Coutaz does say the tech is used in prep stages of development "to allow more time and more space to be creative". It's not just you, I'm not sure what the substance of that statement is either, though Coutaz does say there's not really a way to integrate the tech into devs' day-to-day just yet (it's perhaps interesting to note, here, a recent bit of research by the FT which found that many businesses had crammed AI into their work but couldn't actually define what it was doing for them). In the tones of one being coaxed by Lucifer to commit a heinous crime, Coutaz says AI is "very seducing" and that "if we can break the magic with AI, it will help us be more innovative and more creative". That is, you might note, a repeated refrain with a lot of execs bedazzled by AI -- that it won't substitute for human creativity but will, in fact, give it greater space to flourish. Frankly, I don't see how that could be the case. To quickly gin up placeholder text and textures? That's why the good Lord gave us lorem ipsum (or if you're a poor, benighted journalist, good old 'TKTKTK'). To generate ideas for creatives to run with? I'd much rather those come from writers' rooms and brainstorming sessions than emerge -- as Frankenstein patchworks of old ideas -- from mammoth data centres. But with EA staring down the barrel of a $20 billion debt black hole, it's no wonder the studio is desperately hoping AI can do something, anything for it. I'm sceptical it will. But for now, I'm just glad I won't run into AI-generated textures in the battlefields of Battlefield.

Battlefield 6 Does Not Include Content Made by Generative AI, Says EA

AI has appealed to investors over its potential cost cutting benefits Battlefield 6, the newest entry in Electronic Arts' long-running shooter franchise, is now available across PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S/X. Ahead of the launch, EA has said that players won't see anything created by generative AI in the game. The comment comes days after the company announced a $50 billion leveraged buyout deal to go private, with investors reportedly betting on increased AI usage for cost cutting. EA executive Rebecka Coutaz, who serves as VP general manager at Criterion and Dice, two of the four studios involved in the development of Battlefield 6, told BBC Newsbeat that there was no GenAI-created content within the final game. Coutaz said that generative AI had been utilised in preparatory stages to allow developers "more time and more space to be creative". The executive, however, sees generative AI as a positive for the games medium. She said the technology was "very seducing", but there wasn't a way to incorporate it into game development workflows yet. "If we can break the magic with AI it will help us be more innovative and more creative," Coutaz said. AI in Games EA in the past has taken a positive view on AI and has shown willingness to explore the technology and its potential in the medium. The games industry in general has found resistance from creatives and consumers alike on the generative AI front, even as the technology has appealed to investors due to its potential cost-cutting benefits. Towards the end of September, EA announced it was going private though a $55 billion leveraged buyout deal involving a consortium of investors consisting of private equity firm Silver Lake, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners. According to an FT report (paywalled) on the buyout, investors are betting that AI can help EA cut operating costs significantly and allow the group to manage the $20 billion debt committed by JPMorgan. People involved in the deal told FT that AI-based cost cuts would boost EA's profits significantly in the coming years. Use of generative AI, however, has been a point of contention between creatives and large studios. Earlier this year, video game voice actors, represented by the actors' union SAG-AFTRA, reached a deal with video game studios with a focus on AI protections.

Battlefield 6 lead calls generative AI "very seducing," but says it was only used in the game's earliest stages "to allow for more time and more space to be creative"

There won't be anything generated by AI in Battlefield 6 at launch, but one lead called the tech "very seducing." Speaking to the BBC, VP general manager of Battlefield's European studios Rebecka Coutaz clarified that we won't see anything made by AI in today's shooter, though that doesn't mean EA isn't using the tech already. Apparently generative AI was used during the game's earliest planning stages "to allow more time and more space to be creative." The reason why the controversial tech wasn't used throughout development is because, according to Coutaz, there isn't any way for it to be incorporated into most developer's daily routines. The Battlefield lead is still hopeful about its future, though: "If we can break the magic with AI it will help us be more innovative and more creative." Design director Fasahat Salim was also optimistic, sating it is "not anything to be scared of in our industry" - "Especially as we work in an environment at the bleeding edge of technology - we're kind of used to things changing." If developers themselves feel like it's useful tech, sure, but this newfound optimism raises some eyebrows since EA is set to be acquired for $55 billion in a leveraged buyout, which means the publisher will take on about $20 billion in debt and investors are reportedly eager to see EA cut costs using AI to fill said money hole.

EA Exec Insists Players Won't See Anything Made by 'Very Seducing' Generative AI in Battlefield 6 - IGN

EA has insisted players won't see anything made by generative AI in Battlefield 6. The use of generative AI is one of the hottest topics in the video game industry, with the pressure on publishers to cut costs and speed up development in order to boost profits despite the risk of backlash from some fans. Indeed, according to a report by The Financial Times, EA's new prospective owners (the ones who just spent $55 billion to take the company private) are betting on the use of generative AI to do just that. And EA itself, even before it was bought out, had signalled that it was all-in on generative AI, with CEO Andrew Wilson insisting AI is "the very core of its business." For now though, at least when it comes to Battlefield 6, generative AI is taking a backseat. Rebecka Coutaz, general manager of original series developer DICE in Sweden, and Criterion, the UK studio now also a part of what's collectively called Battlefield Studios, told the BBC that while generative AI "is very seducing," currently there is no way to work it into the developers' daily work. However, Coutaz clarified that generative AI is used in preparatory stages "to allow more time and more space to be creative." EA's approach here for Battlefield 6 is in contrast to Activision's for Call of Duty. Call of Duty has suffered a number of generative AI controversies in recent years, including the now-infamous six-fingered zombie Santa bundle. Earlier this year, Activision was forced to add an 'AI generated content disclosure' to the Steam page for Black Ops 6 after Valve changed its storefront rules. Based on Coutaz's comments, and the current lack of an AI generated content disclosure on the Battlefield 6 Steam page, we won't see something similar in EA's rival first-person shooter. In August, Treyarch associate creative director, Miles Leslie, suggested generative AI images had made their way into Black Ops 6 by mistake. "We live in a world now, where there are AI tools," Leslie told IGN ahead of Black Ops 7's reveal at Opening Night Live 2025. "I think our official statement we said last year, around Black Ops 6, is that everything that goes into the game is touched by the team a hundred percent. We have generative AI tools to help us, but none of that goes in-game. "And then you're going to say, 'Yeah, but it has.' I'll say it has by accident. And that was never the intention. We've come out and been very clear that we use these as tools to help the team, but they do not replace any of the fantastic team members we have that are doing the final touches and building that content to put it in the game. "So everything you play: human-created and touched. AI tools in the world we live in: it's, how do we streamline it? That's really the goal. Not replace, but streamline." It's worth noting the Black Ops 7 Steam page does include the AI disclosure. But will Battlefield Studios' stance on generative AI hold for much longer, especially with EA's new owners breathing down its neck? In the interview with the BBC, Coutaz sounded optimistic about the use of the tech going forward. "If we can break the magic with AI it will help us be more innovative and more creative," she said. The debate over generative AI is bigger than in-game assets. Earlier this week, Nintendo issued a statement in response to claims around generative AI, with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman calling Sora 2 copyrighted character videos "interactive fan fiction." Last month, the famously litigious The Pokémon Company formally responded to the use of Pokémon TV hero Ash Ketchum and the series' theme tune by the Department of Homeland Security, as part of a video showing people being arrested and handcuffed by law enforcement agents. "Our company was not involved in the creation or distribution of this content," a spokesperson told IGN, "and permission was not granted for the use of our intellectual property."