Crimson Desert Developer Pearl Abyss confirmed plans to continue using artificial intelligence for pipeline productivity during its latest quarterly report, following player backlash over placeholder assets featuring six-finger hands and other flawed AI-generated imagery.
Players previously found controversial elements in the action-role-playing game, including six fingers on a hand and a human-horse hybrid entity. These apparent AI-generated pictures and visuals featuring faulty depictions of people and animals sparked complaints and served players as further evidence of thoughtless “AI-slop” that contrasts with conscious design.
According to the developer studio Pearl Abyss, those controversial assets were merely placeholders from the prototype stage that were scheduled to be replaced. Despite the initial negative reception and players' rejecting attitude toward the technology, the studio's latest quarterly report shows it is using artificial intelligence to make development more efficient.
The quarterly report reveals that the technology is used to increase development productivity and quality across various areas. These applications include automating repetitive tasks, assisting with content creation, and optimizing tests. The studio plans to expand this role further.
Pearl Abyss emphasized that artificial intelligence is not meant to replace human developers, describing it instead as a tool to boost efficiency and quality. Its use is strictly limited to validating concepts and pipeline productivity to reduce downtime and accelerate work processes, while the actual game experience and contents remain entirely in the hands of the development team.
This approach appears conservative compared to broader industry trends. Epic Games relies much more heavily on artificial intelligence, while Valve’s Steam platform has seen an influx of AI-generated clones and slop, alongside a notable rise in potentially AI-generated press releases for small solo games and tools. Artificial intelligence has similarly become pervasive in porting, building remasters, bringing classics to browsers, and creating rapid platform ports.
