11 Bit Studios Faces Backlash Over Undisclosed AI Use in The Alters

11 Bit Studios clarifies its AI use in The Alters after player outcry

The developer said instances of AI text in the game were accidental or planned to be replaced. 11 Bit Studios has drawn the ire of players for the undisclosed use of artificial intelligence in its recent release, The Alters. The new project from the team behind Frostpunk and This War of Mine is a narratively and thematically interesting take on a science fiction survival game. The project contains a lot of dialogue and written text, and some players in-game copy that appeared to be generated by a large language model. The Steam storefront that games disclose when they contain material that is either pre-generated or live-generated by artificial intelligence, and The Alters had not been tagged as including AI content. The studio has issued a lengthy statement in response to the complaints. One instance involved AI-generated text in a graphic asset. 11 Bit Studios said this asset was only meant to be used as a placeholder during development. "This was never intended to be part of the final release," the company said. "Unfortunately, due to an internal oversight, this single placeholder text was mistakenly left in the game. We have since conducted a thorough review and confirmed that this was an isolated case, and the asset in question is being updated." The other AI use that players uncovered was in some cases of translations. According to 11 Bit Studios, AI was used for subtitle translations on the licensed movies that can be played in social area of the in-game base, which it said were made by an external source without creative input from its team: AI is an increasingly delicate subject for creative professionals. Many companies with large language models have either been accused of or admitted to training on copyrighted content, which has made AI an ethical nonstarter for many artists and many players. But when studios are regularly faced with negative working conditions surrounding crunch, it's also understandable why the gaming industry might be inclined to look for ways to speed up the process of shipping a title. The reactions to AI appearing The Alters is likely just the latest in the ongoing conversations about when and how this tech might be a part of game development.

Fans slam The Alters after discovering evidence of undisclosed gen AI in images, text, and translation

Players have hit out at The Alters developer 11 Bit Studios after AI prompts were discovered in both subtitles and flavour text in the game, intimating routine use of large language models (LLMs) without disclosure. Since January 2024, Valve has required games that use pre- or live-generated AI to divulge this as part of the Steam Distribution Agreement. This includes art, code, sound, and more that have been created with the help of AI tools. At the time of writing, The Alters has made no such disclosure. In one example, an in-game screen that's presumably there to look all sci-fi-y and scientific begins with: "Sure, here's a revised version focusing purely on scientific and astronomical data". Another commenter who'd played through with subtitles on Brazilian Portuguese noted "several times the subtitles go crazy", which was later backed up with a screenshot that evidenced it. The subtitle read: "Sure! The text translated to Brazilian Portuguese is: Every conversation two people can have, right? So we-" "The game is using AI-generated content without a proper Steam Page disclaimer!" said another player on Steam. "This is absolutely unacceptable. 11 bit studios has been caught using AI in The Alters without ANY disclaimer on the Steam page. "Steam requires developers to disclose AI use for a reason. We have the right to know what we're buying. If you're going to use AI to create content, be honest about it instead of trying to hide it." Not all players have taken umbrage, however. Impressão minha ou a tradução pra português de The Alters usou chatgpt e esqueceu de apagar o prompt? (e sim, tá ruim o texto em português do jogo, várias traduções erradas ou imprecisas, frases confusas que não soam natural etc) [image or embed] -- Heitor De Paola ( @zitosilva.bsky.social) June 27, 2025 at 5:44 PM "You realise this is tiny text on a background prop, and only exists as a graphic and not as something you're expected to actually read," someone replied. "In the past things like that could have Ipsum etc stuff on it, or random gibberish. This isn't even slightly an issue. "You may have a point regarding the translations, if those were indeed AI generated. But to use this screenshot as an example of AI generated content is a joke." Game localisation specialist Lucile Danilov, however, had a different take. "Look, I love The Alters. It's brilliantly written, and I was planning on leaving it a glowing Steam review once I was done. But this is a disgrace. Seriously, leaving parts of an AI prompt in the lockit?! Talk about spitting in the face of your international audience! "According to the OP, some parts of the PT-BR translation are also riddled with errors and inaccuracies, which is appalling considering how the whole game revolves around an intricate narrative." Danilov posited that the mistake was either the work of a "careless translator taking shortcuts", or it was "done by someone on the dev/publisher side who couldn't be arsed sending last-minute missing lines for translation and decided to throw them in a random LLM without oversight". Handong Ryu, who handled the Korean translation for the game, replied: "I was responsible for translating the vast majority of the Korean version of The Alters. Unfortunately, the same issue exists in the Korean version as well, which makes it more likely that the second scenario you mentioned is closer to the truth. While no AI prompt has been exposed, I can confirm that the same section of the Korean localisation shows clear signs of having been run through an LLM without proper editing. "There has been significant backlash from the Korean gaming community, and it has been really disheartening to witness, especially since the criticism stems from a part of the game I had no control over." At the time of writing, 11 Bit has not publicly addressed the allegations or responded to player comments. Earlier this week, Jurassic Park Evolution 3 removed generative AI for scientists' portraits in Jurassic World Evolution 3, "following some initial feedback". "There's something startlingly unique about what 11 Bit Studios does in its games, and the moral quandaries it puts us in, and this clone story in The Alters is no exception," Bertie wrote in Eurogamer's The Alters review, awarding it 4 out of 5 stars. "It takes us to the strange places I hoped it would, and prods and probes and makes me think about what I value in life. It's uneven at times, and some ideas feel underdeveloped, but then, I remember, this merging of ideas is new, and that's what I like so much about it." For more on AI, check out Ed's thoughts on why, "like it or not, gen AI is becoming an invaluable tool for developers".

'Spitting in the face of your international audience': The Alters caught using generative AI for background text and translations, despite not disclosing such on Steam

The Alters has been enjoying a solid reception from fans and critics alike -- we even gave it a sterling 90% in our The Alters review -- unfortunately, that shine's been tarnished by some recent player discoveries: The Alters almost definitely used AI to generate its background text and translations. As spotted by Eurogamer, several screenshots have emerged of 11 Bit Studios getting caught with its deep-learning pants down, such as the following screenshot of some background text that still has the words "Sure, here's a revised version focusing purely on scientific and astronomical data", a telltale sign the text was run through a LLM at some point. Did The Alters (captain) use a little bit of AI? from r/TheAlters While 11 Bit Studios has certainly been naughty -- any game that uses AI needs to clearly state so in the store page, as per Steam's policies -- this isn't the worst use of AI text I've ever seen. Background text in games is typically gibberish, a lorem ipsum variant, or a cheeky easter egg. While rinsing something through a LLM is a smidge cheap, it's not a disaster. The more severe instances crop up when it comes to the game's localisation. Here's one player spotting a similar prompt message left in the game's Portuguese translation. Lucile Danilov, a localisation specialist for videogames, shared the screenshot on LinkedIn, tearing into the practice as "spitting in the face of your international audience" -- though it's unclear whether the fault lies with the localisation companies 11 Bit Studio used, or with the developers themselves. As Danilov mentions, it could've been "done by someone on the dev/publisher side who couldn't be arsed, sending last-minute missing lines for translation, and decided to throw them in a random LLM without oversight." Handong Ryu, who claims to've translated the game into Korean, replies: "The same issue exists in the Korean version as well, which makes it more likely that the second scenario you mentioned is closer to the truth. While no AI prompt has been exposed, I can confirm that the same section of the Korean localization shows clear signs of having been run through an LLM without proper editing." Machine translation can be useful for getting a quick, literal sense of what someone's saying, but it's flawed -- hence why we give you a heads-up whenever something we're reporting on has been translated using it. Proper, digestible localisation requires a human touch, because language is tied to culture. Idioms and references are just scratching the surface. For example: Final Fantasy 14, which through most of its history has had some excellent localisation, had to tackle Urianger's mode of speech. In the original Japanese, Urianger speaks in a flowery, formal register (Japanese has a lot of politeness levels and modes of speech). Given English doesn't have a direct equivalent, the translators made a conscious choice to have him speak in Shakespearian prose, a choice that generative AI likely wouldn't make because, well, it doesn't think. I personally don't care if some overworked background artist did the modern equivalent of a lorem ipsum to fill out text on a data screen (though I'd encourage them to maybe, uh, read it first) but The Alters' cavalier attitude to translation seems like a huge oversight by the studio. If Ryu's statement holds water, and it turns out this was spat out by a dev who didn't want to pass a rewrite down the line, then it's unprofessional at best -- if you credit a translator for their work, then slip in a few LLM lines, that could potentially tarnish their reputation if you don't fess up. There've also been some allegations of AI-generated portraits doing the rounds on social media, though I've not personally seen any compelling evidence, given full, non-AI looking renders were discovered in their wake. It'll be interesting to see how this all pans out, since this seems to be the first instance of a major critical success circumventing Steam's AI disclosure policy. Even if it wasn't on 'purpose': ie, a silly choice made by an isolated dev? That raises interesting questions, too. How does a larger studio stop its hundreds of employees from putting a hidden time bomb in a game's flavour text? I've reached out to 11 Bit Studios and I'll update this article if I get a response.

The Alters studio responds to generative AI criticism saying use was "temporary" or "very limited"

11 Bit Studios has responded to recent criticism of its sci-fi survival game The Alters, insisting controversial AI-generated elements found in-game were either "temporary" assets "never intended to be part of the final release" or used in a "very limited manner." 11 Bit, which has also developed the acclaimed Frostpunk and This War of Mine, found itself the focus of controversy over the weekend after evidence of AI-generated assets were discovered in The Alters - despite the studio failing to disclosure their use on Steam, as mandated by Valve. One image widely circulated on social media showed an in-game background display featuring a text-based "Captain's Log" conspicuously incorporating the giveaway generative AI phrase, "Sure, here's a revised version focusing purely on scientific and astronomical data". But it was the instances of shoddy AI-generated localisation - used alongside professionally translated text - that drew the most criticism. One Portuguese subtitle translation, for instance, began, "Sure! Here is the translated text into Brazilian Portuguese". The discoveries weren't well-received, particularly given 11 Bit Studios' failure to disclose its generative AI usage on Steam, but the developer has now responded, insisting some of the offending elements were used in error, while other aspects were down to misjudgement. "We've seen a wide range of accusations regarding the use of AI-generated content in The Alters," it began in a lengthy statement shared on social media, "and we feel it's important to clarify our approach and give you more context." "AI-generated assets were used strictly as temporary [work-in progress elements] during the development process and in a very limited manner," it continued. "Our team has always prioritised meaningful, handcrafted storytelling as one of the foundations of our game." We've seen a wide range of accusations regarding the use of AI-generated content in The Alters, and we feel it's important to clarify our approach and give you more context. [image or embed] -- 11 bit studios | WISHLIST DEATH HOWL ( @11bitstudios.bsky.social) June 30, 2025 at 4:31 PM "During production, an AI-generated text for a graphic asset, which was meant as a piece of background texture, was used by one of our graphical designers as a placeholder. This was never intended to be part of the final release. Unfortunately, due to an internal oversight, this single placeholder text was mistakenly left in the game. We have since conducted a thorough review and confirmed that this was an isolated case, and the asset in question is being updated." The studio also shared a screenshot of the controversial assets - including the Captain's Log display - as they appear in-game, adding, "While we do not want to downplay the situation, we also want to clearly show its limited impact on your gaming experience". As for those controversial translations, 11 Bit suggested these were limited to a "few licensed movies that the alters can watch in the social area of the base." It says these "externally produced" assets were made without the team being "involved in the creative process", and were "added at the final stage of development". As such, "last-minute" translations were required, said to account for "just 0.3 percent" of in-game text. "Due to extreme time constraints," 11 Bit continued, "we chose not to involve our translation partners and had these videos localised using AI to have them ready on launch." "It was always our intention to involve our trusted translation agencies after release as part of our localisation hotfix," the studio continued, "to ensure those texts would be handled with the same care and quality as the rest of the game. That process is now underway, and updated translations are being implemented... The alternative was to release those specific dialogues in English only, which we believed would be a worse experience for non-English-speakers. In hindsight, we acknowledge this was the wrong call. Even more so, no matter what we decided, we should have simply let you know." 11 Bit didn't address why it had chosen not to disclose the use of AI-generated content on Steam, despite Valve's mandatory requirements, nor has it added the disclosure since being called out. "As AI tools evolve," it concluded, "they present new challenges and opportunities in game development. We're actively adapting our internal processes to meet this reality. But above all, we remain committed to transparency in how we make our games. We appreciate your understanding and continued support as we work towards that goal." 11 Bit isn't the only studio to have faced criticism for its generative AI usage, of course. Last week, Jurassic World Evolution 3 studio Frontier Developments announced it would be removing the game's AI generated scientist avatar art in response to "some initial feedback", while Activision and Microsoft have been criticised for producing AI-generated Call of Duty promotional art and an AI-generated playable demo "inspired" by Quake 2 respectively. As Eurogamer's Ed Nightingale reported earlier this year, however, for all the controversy surrounding AI, it's clear the technology is changing game development forever.

Studio Behind The Alters Responds To Generative AI Allegations: 'This Was Never Intended To Be Part Of The Final Release'

The Alters is a narrative-driven sci-fi survival management sim about a research facility populated by clones. It released in June to positive reviews, with critics praising it for wedding interesting character interactions to the usual management sim churn. Now it's getting flamed for incorporating AI slop. The studio behind it took to social media to defend itself, saying that a viral screenshot of an LLM text-generating prompt was an isolated incident and was never supposed to be kept in the game. The text in question is part of a terminal display in the environment and was first shared on Reddit over a week ago, but it didn't start to attract widespread attention until the weekend when it was shared on Bluesky. The station log displayed in the image includes a bunch of astronomical data, though it was the out-of-place words at the top that raised questions. "Sure, here's a revised version focusing purely on scientific and astronomical data," it reads, suggesting it was copy-and-pasted from a ChatGPT-like prompt box. Another image from one of the in-game movies that characters can watch also displayed clear leftover language from a machine-translation service in the Portuguese subtitles. The allegations began to spread, with some on social media claiming to have spotted other examples of AI-generated content in The Alters, including a character portrait. With various parts of the game becoming suspect, developer 11 Bit Studios posted a response on June 30 to try to clarify the situation. "During production, an AI-generated text for a graphic asset, which was meant as a piece of background texture, was used by one of our graphical designers as a placeholder," the company wrote. "This was never intended to be a part of the final release. Unfortunately, due to an internal oversight, this single placeholder text was mistakenly left in the game." 11 Bit Studios said it conducted a thorough review and found no other incidents. Its defense for the movie translations, meanwhile, was that it planned to replace them with authored ones after launch, but didn't have time beforehand and didn't want to deprive non-English speakers of helpful context. "Those few external movies are approx. 10k words out of 3.4 million across all languages in the game, or just 0.3 percent of the overall text," the studio wrote. But despite being "committed to transparency in how we make our games," 11 Bit Studios has not yet responded to requests for comment from Kotaku or others that elaborate on the company's actual stance regarding generative AI tools. Are they permitted to help create in-game assets or text? What makes something "meaningful, handcrafted storytelling" if even just a few of those elements were offloaded to AI, whether in the brainstorming process or the final version of the game? "The use cases, admittedly very transparently laid out here, have been done without genAI for decades," wrote artist and illustrator aurahack on Bluesky. "This all reads a lot like 'we're sorry we got caught' because there's no recognition here of why this poses any kind of problem ethically or creatively. 0.3 percent is not a lot but it's more than enough to cast a shadow over the rest of your work! If I know it was used there, willingly, how do I know it's not used in parts we can't ever know about? During drafting, during concept art, during texture creation?" A recent GDC survey showed AI tools are making their way into more and more game studios, whether the people working there like it or not. So far reactions have run the gamut. Some have argued for use cases in areas like QA, while others worry the technology will put most creatives out of business. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer previously claimed AI could be used to make more games backwards compatible, but so far the technology has only produced rubbish or, in the case of The Alters, accidental, placeholder slop.

The Alters Developer Confirms It Used AI for Text, Translations in the Game

11 Bit Studios said it would update the game to remove AI content 11 Bit Studios is facing accusations of including artificial intelligence (AI)-generated content in its survival game The Alters, which was released last month. Last week, a player claimed to have spotted AI-generated text in the game and shared a screenshot that seemed to show a generative AI tool's response to a prompt. 11 Bit Studios has now responded to the allegations and confirmed that AI-generated assets were used in the game as placeholders but were never meant to make it into the final build. The developer said it would release an update to remove the AI-generated content from the game. In its response on Bluesky Monday, the developer said that generative AI was also utilised for a small portion of in-game translations. These will be updated in an upcoming hotfix with new translations done by trusted agencies, the studio said. "We've seen a wide range of accusations regarding the use of AI-generated content in The Alters, and we feel it's important to clarify our approach and give you more context," 11 Bit Studios said. "AI-generated assets were used strictly as temporary WIPs during the development process and in a very limited manner. Our team has always prioritized meaningful, handcrafted storytelling as one of the foundations of our game. "During production, an AI-generated text for a graphic asset, which was meant as a piece of background texture, was used by one of our graphical designers as a placeholder. This was never intended to be part of the final release. Unfortunately, due to an internal oversight, this single placeholder text was mistakenly left in the game. We have since conducted a thorough review and confirmed that this was an isolated case, and the asset in question is being updated. For transparency, we've included a screenshot to show how and where it appears in the game. While we do not want to downplay the situation, we also want to clearly show its limited impact on your gaming experience." The graphic asset in question was the one screenshotted and shared by reddit user EarthlingKira last week. The image showed a block of text on a screen in the game, that began with "Sure, here's a revised version focusing purely on scientific and astronomical data:" -- which resembles the beginning of an AI response to a prompt. In its statement, 11 Bit Studios also admitted to AI use for a small portion of the translations in the game, specifically related to licensed movies that in-game characters can watch at their base. The developer said the movies were produced externally and were added to the game at the final stage of development. The studio said it localised the videos using AI due to time constraints. "It was always our intention to involve our trusted translation agencies after release as part of our localization hotfix, to ensure those texts would be handled with the same care and quality as the rest of the game. That process is now underway, and updated translations are being implemented," the developer said. 11 Bit Studios claimed the AI-generated translations only accounted for 0.3 percent of all text in the game but said it should have been transparent about AI use in The Alters. "As AI tools evolve, they present new challenges and opportunities in game development. We're actively adapting our internal processes to meet this reality. But above all, we remain committed to transparency in how we make our games. We appreciate your understanding and continued support as we work towards that goal," the studio added. The rise of generative AI has seen the technology leave its mark in the gaming industry, as well, despite video game performers striking against AI use in games. The industrial action ended last month after SAG-AFTRA reached a tentative agreement with studios. Popular games storefront Steam requires developers to disclose AI use in their games, including explaining how they have used AI in the development and execution of their title. Last year, Activision came under fire for reportedly selling AI-generated cosmetics for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. More recently, Microsoft began public testing of its Copilot for Gaming AI Chatbot on the beta version of the Xbox mobile app. Earlier this year, the Xbox parent debuted its Muse AI model that can generate 3D gameplay environments. The launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot in late 2022 opened the doors for widespread AI adoption across several industries, including film, television, video games and graphic design. The aggressive AI push, however, as met resistance from artists, creatives and publishers who have accused firms like OpenAI, Meta, Google, Anthropic and others of unlicensed use of their work -- films, books, art, music, news reporting -- to train their AI models.

The Alters Dev Admits It Used GenAI With Some Assets "Mistakenly" Left In The Game, While Other Uses Were Intentional

The Alters developer, 11 bit Studios, has addressed allegations that generative AI technology was used in the game's development, admitting that it did use GenAI tech when making the game, though in some cases it was never meant to be in the final version. While other instances were intentional choices the team made due to "time constraints." The Alters released earlier this month to strong critical acclaim, with the game currently sitting at an 84 on Metacritic, with both critics and players praising its narrative woven between different versions of one person. However, over the weekend it faced its first dash of controversy after players discovered what they believed to be confirmation that 11 bit Studios used generative AI technology when making The Alters. A major sticking point for players regarding the use of GenAI is how 11 bit studios used it for localization purposes, with players citing poor translations for Portuguese, Russian, and German, though the most significant aspect of 11 bit Studios using GenAI that has upset players is the fact that 11 bit Studios did not disclose they had used the technology. Per Valve's updated rules for games published on Steam, the use of GenAI to produce the final product that's sold on the digital storefront must be disclosed to players. At the time of this writing, the disclosure is not on The Alters Steam page. Now, we have 11 bit Studios side of the story, with a long statement published to the game's official X account, where the team explains how one of the instances players have brought up was never meant to make it into the final version of the game. It also provides a screenshot of where the GenAI text can be found, showing how little of the game screen real estate it takes up, and claims it to be an isolated mistake, though says it isn't trying to "downplay" the situation. "AI-generated assets were used strictly as temporary WIPs during the development process and in a very limited manner. Our team has always prioritized meaningful, handcrafted storytelling as one of the foundations of our game," the studio writes at the top of its statement. "During production, an AI-generated text for a graphic asset, which was meant as a piece of background texture, was used by one of our graphical designers as a placeholder. This was never intended to be part of the final release. Unfortunately, due to an internal oversight, this single placeholder text was mistakenly left in the game. We have since conducted a thorough review and confirmed that this was an isolated case, and the asset in question is being updated." Other choices, like using GenAI for localization work, it admits, were intentional choices made due to time constraints that it now says were "the wrong call." 11 bit Studios also claims that it always intended to go back and release a hotfix for the proper translations. "In addition to that, a few licensed movies that the alters can watch in the social area of the base were added at the final stage of development. While those were externally produced, our team was not involved in the creative process, and these required additional last-minute translations. Due to extreme time constraints, we chose not to involve our translation partners and had these videos localized using AI to have them ready on launch. It was always our intention to involve our trusted translation agencies after release as part of our localization hotfix, to ensure those texts would be handled with the same care and quality as the rest of the game. That process is now underway, and updated translations are being implemented." 11 bit Studios goes on to describe just how little of the game's text is GenAI, and how it wanted to have translations for the aforementioned films to ensure that it didn't only feature the English dialogue while localization work for other languages continued. "In hindsight, we acknowledge this was the wrong call. Even more so, no matter what we decided, we should have simply let you know." There are plenty of games that use generative AI technology in development, whether as part of the process without intending GenAI assets to be in the final game, or as part of the final product. Like it or not, generative AI technology is part of the modern game development landscape, and it isn't going away anytime soon. It's clear that 11 bit Studios' biggest fumble here wasn't just using GenAI for a poor band-aid solution to its problems, but trying to sneak its GenAI use past players, hoping to patch the game before anyone noticed. It'll be interesting to see how Steam reacts to this, and if the storefront's rules around the disclosure of GenAI, and the failure disclose, will result in punitive action against developers who take the risk of trying to sneak GenAI assets past Steam.

The Alters Developer Confirms It Used Generative AI Text and Translations, Promises Updates - IGN

The Alters developer 11 Bit Studios has responded to fan accusations it used generative AI text and translation in the game, and has promised an update to both to replace the AI-generated content with handcrafted assets. Last week, players of The Alters spotted what appeared to be text generated by AI in the game, on a screen in the Command Center. Specifically, the text includes the line, "Sure, here's a revised version focusing purely on scientific and astronomical data:" followed by a Captain's log, which suggests that someone prompted an AI for the text and forgot to delete the AI's lead-in response. In the English-language version of the game, that was the end of it. However, players of other language versions began to point out that some of the game's translations include lines like, "Sure! Here is the translated text into Brazilian Portuguese.", suggesting that 11 Bit Studios had used generative AI to localize at least some portion of the game. The Alters does not include a disclosure on its Steam page stating that it includes generative AI, which Valve makes mandatory for all games that use the technology. In a statement sent via email to IGN and published across social platforms, 11 Bit Studios offered an explanation for the generative AI text and translations. The studio explained that the Captain's Log text was intended as a placeholder and simply got missed during final release, and that no other such instances appear in the game. As for the localization, 11 Bit says that generative AI translations were limited to a few cutscenes added very late in development that needed last-minute translations, and that it always intended to replace them with professional translations. Here's the studio's statement, in full: We've seen a wide range of accusations regarding the use of AI-generated content in The Alters, and we feel it's important to clarify our approach and give you more context. AI-generated assets were used strictly as temporary WIPs during the development process and in a very limited manner. Our team has always prioritized meaningful, handcrafted storytelling as one of the foundations of our game. During production, an AI-generated text for a graphic asset, which was meant as a piece of background texture, was used by one of our graphical designers as a placeholder. This was never intended to be part of the final release. Unfortunately, due to an internal oversight, this single placeholder text was mistakenly left in the game. We have since conducted a thorough review and confirmed that this was an isolated case, and the asset in question is being updated. For transparency, we've included a screenshot to show how and where it appears in the game. While we do not want to downplay the situation, we also want to clearly show its limited impact on your gaming experience. In addition to that, a few licensed movies that the alters can watch in the social area of the base were added at the final stage of development. While those were externally produced, our team was not involved in the creative process, and these required additional last-minute translations. Due to extreme time constraints, we chose not to involve our translation partners and had these videos localized using AI to have them ready on launch. It was always our intention to involve our trusted translation agencies after release as part of our localization hotfix, to ensure those texts would be handled with the same care and quality as the rest of the game. That process is now underway, and updated translations are being implemented. To give you a better understanding of what a small part of the overall scope of the game's narrative layer they are, those few external movies are approximately 10k words out of 3.4 million across all languages in the game, or just 0.3% of the overall text. The alternative was to release those specific dialogues in English only, which we believed would be a worse experience for non-English speakers. In hindsight, we acknowledge this was the wrong call. Even more so, no matter what we decided, we should have simply let you know. As AI tools evolve, they present new challenges and opportunities in game development. We're actively adapting our internal processes to meet this reality. But above all, we remain committed to transparency in how we make our games. We appreciate your understanding and continued support as we work towards that goal. 11 Bit Studios is just the latest company to come under fire for generative AI usage. Just last week, Jurassic World Evolution 3 developer Frontier Developments had to walk back its use of generative AI characters portraits after widespread criticism. Activision has been skewered repeatedly for its generative AI use, including recent examples of an ad for a Guitar Hero game that doesn't exist, and certain Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 assets. Other games, such as Palworld, have been accused of using generative AI but have gone to great lengths to prove the accusations were unfounded and that no generative AI was used. Regardless of generative AI usage, we gave The Alters an 8/10 in our review, calling it "a highly atmospheric sci-fi character study mixed with simple but effective resource and base management that cleverly builds existential and interpersonal pressure throughout its story."