AI is a hot topic in the gaming and wider technological industries at the moment. CEOs and executives want to seem at the forefront of cutting edge technology, but few understand the immoralities of using AI rather than real artists for their work. The complete disregard for the art stolen to create these so-called ‘artworks’ stinks of having never put the time and effort into creating something for yourself, and these allegations of theft rightfully makes AI a controversial subject.
Those top dogs whodounderstand the immoralities of AI are even worse. Generative AI not only steals art from existing artists –sometimes even including their signatures or watermarks– but reduces the need for real artists in the company. The same goes forLarge Language Models (LLMs) and writers, or any flavour of generative AI that replaces real people’s creativity with stolen ideas. It’s a cheap alternative, a word which makes profit-driven board members’ eyes light up with cartoonish dollar signs, but loses the heart and soul of art made by a real person. If creatives start losing their jobs and are replaced by AI, games will end up being nothing more than rehashings of what has come before. How can the industry move forward if it’s only rewriting the past?
The other factor to bear in mind is that AI art looks dogwater. Basics like composition and colour can be thrifted from real artists that inform its learning model, but AI still doesn’t understand basic human anatomy, and the problems with incorporating it into existing universes goes even further.
The allegations thatRespawnandEAused AI art for theFinal Fantasy 7 Rebirthcrossover began whenone Twitter usernoticed problems with the trailer for the Apex Legends x Final Fantasy crossover event. There are multiple instances of poorly drawn fingers and belt buckles, trademark giveaways for AI art. One of Wraith’s fingers is pointing the wrong way, with her fingernail joining with her hand where her metacarpal should be. Multiple straps and buckles are just messes of shading with no definition or real shape at all.
The Twitter user accuses Respawn and EA of “stealing from their old employees”, whereas other people think that this is more of an AI-based Snapchat filter to give existing Apex art a more anime feel. To be clear, that’s just as bad. Why not hire a specialist artist, perhaps someone who has worked on anime before? This is supposed to be a collaboration between Apex Legends and Square Enix, so why not allow the artists to collaborate rather than pouring their work into an AI or popping a filter over existing art?
Of course, we don’t know the details yet. UnlikeMagic: the Gathering, nobody fromApex Legendshas acknowledged the allegations yet, nor admitted that it is, in fact, AI art. The signs are there, but there’s no proof. However, the allegations are the latest factor to erode fan goodwill in the game.
As well as the AI allegations,this event is also going to be costlyfor players who want to get their hands on the exclusive, time-limited cosmetics. The prices of the game’s loot boxes have risen for this event, meaning that each gamble to get the Buster Sword costs $10 rather than the usual $7. With 36 items to collect, that’s a $360 investment to earn a Mythic Death Box based on Sephiroth. It’s a fun item, but is it worth more than an Xbox Series S?
There’s a little misconception about the Mythic Death Box. You will see it when you kill enemies in game, as well as when you die, so the cosmetic is not just for your opponents to marvel at after they one-clip you with an aim assisted R99 spray.
If nothing else, the Apex Legends x Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth event shows how Respawn and EA’s priorities have changed. Real-world crossovers seem odd in a game with its own universe, especially one so deep as that built for Titanfall. This is a money-making exercise, intended to reap the benefits of expensive cosmetics as well as introduce new players (Final Fantasy fans) to Apex’s battle royale goodness.
There’s no new Apex lore with this event, the patch notes are sparse (even if the minor Catalyst nerf is welcome), and the game seems to have stalled. I’m not going to cry that it’s a dead game or anything, but Apex feels like a different game to the one it was when it first released. Part of that is normal – this is a live-service title nearly five years into its lifespan, after all – but I’m not sure I like it.
From suspect images to expensive death boxes, this Apex Legends update feels decidedly anti-consumer, and also pretty anti-dev. Should we be entirely surprised when theSquare EnixCEO Takashi Kiryu said, “We also intend to be aggressive in applying AI and other cutting-edge technologies to both our content development and our publishing functions,” in hisannual new year letter? If this is the way the games industry is going, ripping the soul out of games in favour of money and marketing, count me out.
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