Razer CEO champions AI in game development despite gamer backlash against AI slop

'The way that we see it is that AI is a tool to help game developers make better games': Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan champions AI in game development

Razer's CEO delivered some interesting comments that are majorly in favor of AI being implemented into game development At this year's CES, Razer doubled down on AI, showing off a wave of new products built around it. The lineup included Project AVA, an AI desk companion, Project Motoko, a gaming headset positioned as "wearable AI," and the Razer Forge AI Dev Workstation, a developer-focused PC designed for AI computing. Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan also took the stage for a live episode of The Verge's "Decoder" podcast with editor-in-chief Nilay Patel, where he addressed the growing backlash from gamers over AI's role in game development. Tan didn't mince words about the rise of "AI slop," but he made it clear he still believes AI can be a net positive -- especially when it comes to speeding up development. He even argued that, despite the noise online, most gamers ultimately want smoother, faster game releases too. Min Liang-Tan says AI could make game development faster, easier and less demanding During their one-on-one conversation, Patel brought up Razer's plan to invest $600 million into AI over the next couple of years, and asked Liang-Tan how he responds to the growing aversion to AI from both gamers and game developers. Liang-Tan didn't dismiss the backlash, but he made it clear he sees AI tools as a net positive -- especially when they're used to support developers, not replace them. "What we aren't against, at least from my perspective, are tools that help augment or support, and help game developers make great games," he said. He pointed to practical examples like AI-assisted QA, arguing that if AI can help developers test games faster, catch bugs sooner and clean up small mistakes, that's something everyone should be rooting for. "If we could get game developers to have the opportunity to create better, to check through typos and things like that, to create better games, I think we all want that." That mindset tracks with Razer's bigger AI push. The company is reportedly hiring 150 AI scientists as it expands its footprint in the AI gaming space, and Liang-Tan highlighted one project in particular: an AI "QA companion" designed to make bug reporting less painful for testers by automatically filling out forms as issues are logged. For Liang-Tan, that's the real promise of AI in gaming -- not replacing the human side of creativity, but taking the tedious parts off developers' plates so they can build better games. "The way that we see it is that AI is a tool to help game developers make better games," he said, adding that he feels strongly about protecting human creativity while figuring out where AI can genuinely improve the process. Liang-Tan looks down on all things 'AI slop' While those in the gaming industry and gamers as a whole may not be all that enthusiastic about the rosy future Liang-Tan paints as it pertains to AI in gaming, we're confident that those two groups can agree with his comments about the flood of AI slop hitting everyone's timelines. "I think we're unhappy with generative AI slop, right?" he asked. "Just to put it out there. And that's something that I'm unhappy with. Like any gamer, when I play a game, I want to be engaged, I wanna be immersed, I wanna be able to be competitive. I don't want to be served character models with extra fingers and stuff like that, or shoddily written storylines, so on and so forth. I think for us, we're all aligned against gen AI slop that is just churned out from a couple of prompts and stuff like that." Bottom line Looking at the current gaming landscape reveals several major development studios either going all-in on AI or ignoring it altogether. Razer is clearly in the former group, as its CEO's comments make abundantly clear. With three upcoming AI gaming products on the way, a massive investment in the technology, and a podcast episode full of encouragement for AI on behalf of Liang-Tan, Razer has its sights set on making AI in gaming more accessible and acceptable. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds.

Razer CEO says gamers want AI to help game development, they just don't know it yet

TL;DR: Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan emphasizes that gamers support AI-powered tools that enhance game development, particularly in quality assurance. Razer is investing $600 million to create AI companions that assist human testers by automating bug reporting, reducing costs, and accelerating game testing without compromising quality or creativity. Since the emergence of AI, particularly generative AI, gamers have been opposed to the idea of these tools improving exponentially in the development of games. But, according to Razer's CEO Min-Liang Tan, gamers do want AI-powered tools assisting in game development, they just don't know it yet. The statement comes from an interview with Min-Liang Tan and The Verge, where he was queried about Razer's $600 million investment into AI over the next few years. Tan was asked about his thoughts on Razer's hefty investment in the new technology and how gamers currently view AI. The Razer CEO said that many gamers are currently unhappy with "generative AI slop," and so is he, as he also doesn't want to be served poorly designed character models, hollow storylines, etc. However, what Razer isn't against is providing the tools to assist game developers in the creation of the game. Tan provided an example of creating a tool that helps developers test their games faster and better. Tan goes on to say that Razer is building a QA (quality assurance) companion, a companion tool that works with a human QA tester to automatically fill out forms, identifying discovered bugs and problems within a game. "One of the things that we're building, for example, at Razer is what we call a QA companion. So QA tends to be an expensive endeavour. Like the gamer doesn't see it at the end of the day, but it can take up like 30 to 40 percent of the cost, or delay games for the longest time. Now, what we've done is create a companion, a tool that works with the human QA tester to be able to automatically fill in forms, to say, "Okay, if this is..." Say the form is a Jira ticket, to say "this is a bug that is identified, there's a graphical bug, there's a performance bug." All that's logged very quickly, so it's sent to the developer at the same time. The developer then can go in and say, "Okay, this is how I'll fix the bug," or, "These are suggestions on how I fix the bug," said Min-Liang Tan

'Art May Still Be Created With the Same Tools That Created the Slop' -- Razer CEO Believes Gamers Will Eventually Come Around on Generative AI Use in Development

Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan has weighed in on the discussion surrounding generative AI in game development, claiming that the controversial technology has a place in the industry, but gamers just aren't aware of the art it will produce yet. "With the amount of slop out there, we're going to see some level of art rise to the top, and that kind of art may still be created with the same tools that created the slop," Tan said in an interview with The Verge. It comes as Razer continues to implement AI technology into its own hardware, following several new product reveals at CES 2026. Among them is a pair of over-ear headphones and a high-powered workstation PC meant for handling demanding AI workloads. Razer also has an open source AI developer kit aimed at coders and other business customers. "What we do is focus on what the gamers want, what the game developers want, and we see ourselves as the link in between," claimed Min. "And we keep both as happy as we can." As The Verge pointed out in the interview, a quick glance at the comments section below Razer's own social media posts hyping up its new products reveals a backlash to its AI-heavy announcements. The replies are littered with users posting anti-AI sentiments and memes asking for Razer to stop using the technology in its products. The use of generative AI in game development has been one of the hottest topics in the industry over the past few months. Following the reveal of Divinity at the 2025 The Game Awards, developer Larian CEO, Swen Vincke, sparked a backlash when he said the studio was using genAI in various capacities. Larian ended up having to address AI concerns in a reddit AMA in which the studio confirmed a U-turn on some aspects of its use. Despite pushback on genAI online, the Razer CEO remains hopeful that perception will change, and that soon gamers will see true "art" start to be created with these tools. "I would say that the question is, 'What are we unhappy with?', Min asked. "When I say we, I mean us as gamers. I think we're unhappy with generative AI slop, right? Just to put it out there. And that's something that I'm unhappy with. Like any gamer, when I play a game, I want to be engaged, I wanna be immersed, I wanna be able to be competitive. I don't want to be served character models with extra fingers and stuff like that, or shoddily written storylines." "With the amount of slop out there, we're going to see some level of art rise to the top, and that kind of art may still be created with the same tools that created the slop, but with great care, with great discernment, to be able to do something truly different," Min continued. "The difference will come from human ingenuity, not from countless prompt mashing, so to speak. "If we could get game developers to have the opportunity to create better, to check through typos and things like that, to create better games, I think we all want that. So I think that's the way that we see it." When asked about what games the CEO of the electronics company, whose mantra is "For Gamers. By Gamers," is playing that meet the bar of "ingenuity and creativity," Min responded: "Oh, well, I play random stuff. If you're talking about human ingenuity... I even play some of the Roblox games at this point in time, right? "One hundred people dropped on an island with a circle that comes through. I mean, while I enjoy the game itself, I also appreciate the mechanics, the thought that has gone into them, and the premise that the designer has figured out. In PUBG, for example, it's this primal instinct of humans to be the last man standing, so to speak. So it's things like that that I appreciate, and I think it's art." PUBG is a hugely popular battle royale that was crafted by a small team and led by a modder who created it due to a love of the medium and the desire for a new genre. While we wait to find out what this art that rises to the top of the AI slop looks like, some companies are banning the use of genAI altogether. Last week, Games Workshop confirmed it had banned the use of generative AI for the production of its designs and content, a decision many Warhammer fans welcomed. However, Games Workshop's ban on AI is in contrast to the attitude of some entertainment companies, some of whom have gone all-in on the tech. The CEO of Genvid -- the company behind choose-your-own-adventure interactive series Silent Hill Ascension -- has claimed "consumers generally do not care" about generative AI, and stated that: "Gen Z loves AI slop." EA CEO Andrew Wilson has said AI is "the very core of our business," and Square Enix recently implemented mass layoffs and reorganized, saying it needed to be "aggressive in applying AI." Dead Space creator Glen Schofield also recently detailed his plans to "fix" the industry in part via the use of generative AI in game development, and former God of War dev Meghan Morgan Juinio said: "... if we don't embrace [AI], I think we're selling ourselves short." Photo by Nina Franova/Getty Images for SXSW Sydney. Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.