Mass Effect director Casey Hudson calls generative AI 'creatively soulless' for game development

AI is 'creatively soulless,' says director of Mass Effect and Knights of the Old Republic: 'I'm just really unimpressed with it'

It doesn't sounds like AI is going to play much of a role in the development of Fate of the Old Republic. Casey Hudson, the director of the original Knights of the Old Republic, is working on a new game in the series called Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic -- you may have heard about that already, in the form of excited gurgling noises coming from PC Gamer editor Ted Litchfield. It's a big deal, but in an interview with Bloomberg, Hudson said one of his goals is to avoid having his team at Arcanaut Studios grow too big. Unlike some of his contemporaries, though, Hudson does not see generative AI as the solution to making games with smaller teams.. Making videogames has become very expensive on the triple-A side of the industry. 2020's Black Ops: Cold War cost more than $700 million to make, for instance, and the budget of the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6 is reportedly measured in the billions. A big chunk of that eye-watering change comes from payroll -- so a small studio, obviously, means a smaller budget, which is particularly important in an era of brutal layoffs and studio closures. "We really want to avoid having hundreds and hundreds of people," Hudson said about Arcanaut. But the option that so many game industry executives are leaning toward these days is apparently not an option for Hudson. "I just find AI to be creatively soulless," Hudson said. "It's hard to imagine where it's actually helpful in the process. I'm just really unimpressed with it." As is too often the case, "AI" isn't really defined here, but it's fair to assume he's referring specifically to generative AI tools used for content creation. To which I say, good, because regardless of your personal meditations on the nature of the human soul, I think we can all agree that machines imitating behaviors based on specific inputs and algorithms don't have one -- and if art is your goal (rather than just, y'know, a commodified product), that's a problem. Hudson isn't alone in this position. BioShock big daddy Ken Levine said in 2025 that he's "not overly impressed" by the game development capabilities of AI, and more recently Peter Molyneux expressed a similar opinion, saying that "AI is not of a high enough quality for us to really use in games right now." Of course, others feel differently. Sony Interactive Entertainment boss Hideaki Nishino said earlier this month that AI is going to enable "gaming experiences like never before" (statements like that always remind me of Hitler's famous quote, "Give me four years time and you will not recognize Germany"), and Lies of P studio Neowiz recently posted an ad for an "AI Creator" who will bring expertise with generative AI to the studio's development teams and games. Despite those countervailing opinions, I'm glad Hudson doesn't share that enthusiasm: I'm all for technological advances that make things better, but sometimes it really does just make things worse. And Hudson, for the record, knows what he's talking about: Before he hit the big-time with Mass Effect, he did concept and prototype art on BioWare games including MDK2, Neverwinter Nights, and Knights of the Old Republic.

Mass Effect and Knights of the Old Republic director Casey Hudson calls generative AI 'creatively soulless'

Fans of BioWare RPGs like the original Mass Effect trilogy and the iconic Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic will probably know the name, Casey Hudson. The veteran game designer and director led development of these classic titles and is currently leading a new studio, Arcanaut Studios, to create a Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) spiritual successor, Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic. With the new studio partnered with Lucasfilm Games, with an additional $100 million in funding from NetEase veteran Simon Zhu, the studio co-founder and Fate of the Old Republic game director recently sat down with Bloomberg to discuss the project. And during the discussion, he conveyed his feelings on the role of generative AI in game development. As the headline says, yeah, he's not a fan. "I just find AI to be creatively soulless," Casey Hudson tells Bloomberg. "It's hard to imagine where it's actually helpful in the process. I'm just really unimpressed with it." Although this doesn't call out a specific use case for generative AI in game development, the discussion naturally went in that direction, as Arcanaut Studios is a relatively small studio developing a massive AAA-style Star Wars RPG. In fact, the goal is to build the studio, develop the full game, and release it before 2030 without having "hundreds and hundreds of people" working on it. In an era where big games now take upward of 5 to 7 years to develop, it's an ambitious goal, so it's natural to assume that the studio would be looking into how AI tools could accelerate development, whether that's on the QA side or on the creative side, leveraging generative AI tools. Based on Casey's comments, it sounds like the latter is off the table.

Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic director and BioWare veteran Casey Hudson says AI is "creatively soulless"

As AI is often seen as a way to speed up certain aspects of game development, and Casey Hudson wants Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic out before 2030, perhaps you'd think he may consider using the technology. Definitely not, as Hudson doesn't believe it can offer him anything helpful in making the game he wants to create. "I just find AI to be creatively soulless. It's hard to imagine where it's actually helpful in the process. I'm just really unimpressed with it," he tells Bloomberg in a recent interview. It does seem like Hudson will be able to keep his no-AI promise, as it appears he's given a lot of control over this project. Star Wars: FOTOR will be funded by GreaterThan Group, a new company founded by former NetEase executive Simon Zhu, who has secured around $100 million in funding from various investors. Hudson has also brought a bunch of old BioWare veterans on board, including Ryan Hoyle, Caroline Livingstone, and Dan Fessenden. Zhu's vision with GreaterThan Group is to secure a different future from the one we're seeing today with new tech focuses and developers getting laid off every five minutes. "You can have player satisfaction, you can have commercial success. You can have the achievement of art. You don't need to compromise or sacrifice one thing for the other. Let's give the best creator the opportunity to work on a dream project. Everyone wins...The industry treats developers so badly. I think there should always be a rebalancing force treating developers better." So, no AI for FOTOR and it's back by a company that seems to care about game developers? Sounds a bit too good to be true for me, but maybe I'm just jaded by the modern industry.