Generative AI Game Development
Image: Push Square

More and more developers are turning to generative AI models when making their games — and it's a trend that's practically exploded over the last year or so.

This story isn't strictly to do with PlayStation right now, but it's almost guaranteed to become a major talking point in the near future.

A fascinating new study from Totally Human reveals that over the last 12 months, the number of games that make use generative AI on PC platform Steam has spiked by a staggering 800%.

According to the report, it's gone from around 1,000 titles disclosing their use of AI in 2024, to almost 8,000 releases in 2025. That's apparently 7% of Steam's total library — and worryingly, it feels like these figures are only going to increase as the technology is refined and becomes even easier to use.

Now, it should be noted that a lot of these games will be low budget indie efforts — and plenty of them will be the kind of slop that's now finding its way onto the PlayStation Store more and more often.

Still, the bottom line here is that developing games with AI is very quickly becoming common practice. Just recently, there was a whole kerfuffle surrounding The Alters, which had traces of generative AI use.

11 Bit Studios admitted that placeholder text had been created by AI and was never meant to make it into the final product — but at what point do we all start combing through every game we play, questioning if certain elements are AI generated?

We suppose that's a topic for another day, but in the meantime, 60% of these Steam games — again, titles that actually disclose their use of AI — are using generative AI to produce "visual assets", so stuff like... well, pretty much anything that you can see.

The rest cover audio, text, marketing and promotional materials (like AI generated key art, which is growing increasingly common on the PS Store), and code.

Given just how many mass layoffs we're seeing across the industry, it's hard not to feel concerned about gaming's current trajectory. If generative AI is catching on this quickly amongst smaller studios, it's surely only a matter of time until big publishers really start weighing up the cost-cutting potential of these AI platforms.

What's your take on all this? Is this just the start of a bleak AI-driven future for gaming? Or will something have to be done about it sooner rather than later? Feel free to shake your head in the comments section below.

[source totallyhuman.io, via videogameschronicle.com]