The AI Double Standard: Divinity Took Heat While Expedition 33 Didn’t
Larian’s Divinity sparks AI controversy, yet Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 escaped backlash. Exploring gaming’s AI double standards.
The use of AI will be an ongoing debate and controversy for a long time. Some, full stop avoid anything to do with it, some embrace it, and some understand its uses and accept it to a certain degree. In the gaming world however, more often than not, using AI-generated assets is like a death sentence.
We’ve seen it before with the intense backlash The Alters got back in June, and fairly recently, with Postal Bullet Paradise which caused its cancellation and its studio to shut down. Now, Larian Studios and its recently revealed Divinity game are facing the same public scrutiny.
It is quite interesting though that there are some inconsistencies with all these and how, pretty much, Clair Obscur Expedition 33 got away with it. It even got itself a Game of the Year award at TGA 2025.
Sandfall Flies By While Larian Receives Backlash Over AI-use
First off, let us be clear, Expedition 33 is a great game and it deserves all the success, awards, and nominations it got. It truly is a masterpiece. But while many games get heavily criticized for using AI in their development, this game received almost no backlash.
And it wasn’t like the team hid it. In fact Sandfall producer François Meurisse shared in an interview with Spanish newspaper EL PAÍS in June, “We use some AI, but not much.” This was also caught by few gamers who noticed some generative AI were used for some textures.
Excellent, the AI generated textures in Clair Obscur were indeed placeholders and were replaced with custom assets. The other AI generated poster that was present in the starting area (don't have a screenshot of it now) was also removed. https://t.co/UQbfLuyj8e pic.twitter.com/5xgqsCmZpC
— Nyanomancer (@nyanomancer) April 30, 2025
It was eventually, quietly, replaced with custom assets. Was it just a placeholder or were they trying to get away with it but changed their mind when AI chatter got hot? To be fair, to be fair, unlike other games on the hot seat, Expedition 33’s AI assets were very minimal. Also, they were transparent about it.
Maybe that’s why Larian Studios followed suit as its CEO Swen Vincke admitted that they are using AI for the development of Divinity. He also said that AI is only being used in the process, as a tool, and the game will not be released with any AI-generated content, even accidentally.
Larian CEO confirms the studio is using generative AI to "explore ideas, flesh out PowerPoint presentations, develop concept art and write placeholder text."
— KAMI (@Okami13_) December 16, 2025
He says there won’t be any AI-generated content in Divinity — "everything is human actors; we’re writing everything… pic.twitter.com/P2oQ4eJFGX
Of course at this point, many are skeptical but Michael Douse, Divinity’s publishing director, commented on X that they have good QA and leads to make sure that their fans won’t be consuming AI-generated content of any kind.
So what is it? Is it the level of transparency? The degree of AI-use? or just that the times now (especially with the layoffs and restructuring) is more critical of AI? Or maybe Expedition 33 was that good of a game that fans can overlook this fine print. What do you think?
It’s hard to say if this resistance will continue and if it will force the industry to listen. But one thing is for sure, AI is here to stay so the best we can do is push for accountability and transparency, and reinforce the idea that it is a tool and not a “maker.”
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Sending some gaming news your way from a surfing paradise island. Loves creating content, and researching informative facts and useless trivia. A novice in the gaming industry but a veteran in communications and publication.
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