Gaming Industry Divided as Gen Z Embraces AI-Generated Content Despite Creative Community Backlash

Consumers Generally Don't Care About AI in Video Games, Former Square Enix Executive Says

Despite the use of AI in video games and creative work being one of the hottest debated ethical topics among enthusiasts, consumers generally remain indifferent, according to a former Square Enix executive. Jacob Navok, Genvid CEO and former Director of Business at Square Enix Holdings, recently chimed in on the debate via X, providing compelling evidence for why this consumer indifference is driving industry change. Navok cited the success of the Roblox title Steal a Brainrot as a prime example. The game, which features 3D models based on AI slop characters, has been a massive hit among Gen Z gamers, reaching a peak of approximately 30 million concurrent players. This massive popularity signals that the current generation of young gamers doesn't care about the matter, and future generations of gamers will care even less. As Navok put it, quoting The Dark Knight Rises: "You merely adopted the slop, I was born in it." With the general consumer base largely uninterested in the matter, AI usage in video games is expected to increase significantly. The former Square Enix executive noted that many studios are already using AI generation in the concept phase, and many others are using tools like Claude for code, suggesting it will soon be hard to find an indie studio that isn't leveraging these tools. While most consumers, especially the younger generation, may not care about AI, how it is used makes all the difference in terms of quality, but perhaps not in terms of sales and revenue. For instance, Embark Studios utilized AI to enhance the player experience in ARC Raiders by generating additional voice lines while ethically compensating voice actors for their voices to serve as the source material. However, while this represents high-quality integration, it may not outperform the AI slop model in terms of scale. Navok notes that the Roblox game is set to earn significantly more money for longer, making between $80 and $90 million since its release and continuing to be highly popular, hitting a 20 million concurrent players count two weeks in a row this month. ARC Riders is the prime example of how AI can be used to enhance the experience of a video game, but other implementations can be just as interesting, and far from falling into the AI slop category that is at the center of the current debate. Everstone Studio's Where Winds Meet, for example, features some NPCs powered by AI chatbots, which can lead to a variety of interactions, ranging from appropriate to wildly hilarious. Other games, however, lean more into the category reviled by many, such as Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, which replaced real art for its calling cards with AI-generated images that leave a lot to be desired. Where do you stand in this raging debate? Does AI usage put you off, or are you okay with it as long as the game is fun? Let us know in the comments.

"Gen Z loves AI slop" says Silent Hill dev

Younger consumers were born into it and don't care, the former Square Enix director thinks. AI slop is everywhere, from memes and other social media content to entire video games. It's one of the things that's most guaranteed to spark a backlash, as shown by the AI Coca-Cola Christmas advert. But do most people care? It's something we've seen branding experts debate, and it's a question that video game developers are asking too. A former director of the game developer Square Enix seems to have little doubt. Jacob Navok reckons Gen Z "loves AI slop". Jacob is now the the CEO of Genvid, a company that's merging the concept of video games with streaming in what it calls massive interactive live events (MILE). Its horror series Silent Hill: Ascension was panned by fans and critics alike. Writing on X, he's now sparked a debate by suggesting that most consumers don't care about generative AI, "For all the anti-AI sentiment we're seeing in various articles, it appears consumers generally do not care," he writes. He cites the example of the infamous Roblox game Steal a Brainrot, which he describes as the "biggest game of the year". Based on the Italian brainrot internet meme, the multiplayer tycoon game challenges players to collect and steal characters, which are 3D models of AI-generated assets. "Gen Z loves AI slop, does not care, Jacob claims. "The upcoming generation of gamers are Bane in Dark Knight Rises saying 'You merely adopted the slop, I was born in it'." He adds: "I should add that in-game art and voices are merely the tip of the spear. Many studios I know are using AI generation in the concept phase, and many more are using Claude for code. "It will be hard to find a non-indie title that isn't using Claude for code, and ignoring Claude's AI use because it's code while focusing purely on art shows that a lot of AI sentiment is being driven by emotion rather than logic." Jacob also suggests that those gamers who decide to "vote with their wallets" and avoid games that use AI-generated assets, should "avoid any Microsoft published games, all products using Nvidia hardware (including all Switch and Switch 2 games), and any game using GCP as a backend" due to these companies' support for the tech powering AI content. In the responses on X, some question whether using Claude to generate code can really be compared to using image generators like Midjourney to generate art. "If devs could, all their work would be open source, not the same as artists," one person writes. Others agree that not all types of generative AI content are received in the same way by gamers, suggesting that people's expectations from a Roblox product and a traditional retail game are very different. "I'm not sure if everyone's educated enough to tell but surely enough to spot the difference between a TTS system blended with recorded voice lines and assets generated with AI like seen in BO7," one person says. "Just because McDonald's has thousands of locations around the world doesn't mean people don't care about good food," another person argues. "Assets flips, whalebait gachas and other low-tier cash grabs that generate millions have existed before AI, and they will after." AI content in gaming will surely continue to generate debate, and we'll soon start to see the impact in numbers. As one person comments, the next wave of games could define the dos and don'ts of AI in game development.