Activision has responded to claims regarding the use of generative AI to create calling cards in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7.
The response comes in the form of an email statement sent to Insider Gaming by an Activision spokesperson. In the statement, which you can read below, the company says that it uses a “variety” of tools, “including AI tools” for their development.
“Like so many around the world, we use a variety of digital tools, including AI tools, to empower and support our teams to create the best gaming experiences possible for our players,” the statement reads, which was first given to Xbox Era before the rep responded to Insider Gaming’s request. “Our creative process continues to be led by the talented individuals in our studios.”
Insider Gaming has reached out for more specific clarification as to what assets were generated by AI. Should that get a response, it will be published on Insider-Gaming.com and in the new Insider Gaming App.
What are your thoughts on Activision’s statement regarding the use of AI in Black Ops 7? Leave your thoughts down in the comments and join the official Insider Gaming Discord server.
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Mike has been covering the gaming industry since 2012, and has reported on some of the largest events in the industry while also working as an investigative reporter. Outside of…
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Does it really matter, i bet most Triple A companies use AI we are in 2025 what do people expect. Im enjoying bo7 and im enjoying the camo grind so let people hate you will always get them no matter what
Nothing wrong with the use of AI to ease workloads, provided if that’s all they are doing, who knows maybe now they can finally stop reusing some assets, or creatively bring new ideas, new experiences to the table.
Yeah, the issue is that while AI tools can ease the workload, that doesn’t mean that the devs can have an easier time with making games. That means that the publisher will put more work on them since “they doing most of it with AI anyway” (which they are forced to use by the mandate of the publisher).
People who agree with using AI are why we with fall fall further and further with scrappy games, BO2 and BO3 were both amazing games and using AI just makes them even shatter call of duty’s than Cold war and BO6. Companies should hire back the device that made games great and stop making slop to make games.
This is a failure that is detrimental to the industry as a whole. Defend AI slop all you want, but we know microsoft has an invested interest in AI use. As for the fan boys masochists, suckling at the teet of an ever-more garbage company… Why? Why do you put up with this beaten-spouse abuse publicly? The black eye and cracked rib already speak volumes. Your moral failing should not define the market. Don’t let them do this to video games. Embarrassing.
When you demand and defend bad decisions, and double down on it, we know you just bought into the sunk cost fallacy.
Nobody is against generative A.I. and A.I. slop more than I, but the critics are overreacting here. What are they using a.i. for? Most likely, the posters and portraits in maps that are throwaway things nobody pays attention to anyway. One guy online found a spider with 7 or maybe 9 legs in the Halloween-themed update to Nuketown in Black Ops 6. Okay. So what? Who would even notice or care, in Nuketown, a map where everyone is dying and frenetically running about constantly.
They may use A.I. to write spammy marketing posts on social media or their website. (Twitter / “X” is basically all bots anyway, written by and read by a.i.)
None of the major work will be handled by A.I. of the generative variety. It’s little things that helps save the team time.
What fans should be more offended by is the blatant re-use of maps from previous games in the campaign, “End Game,” and multiplayer. I myself noticed Hijacked, Skyline, and the Skirmish map in the campaign, and the Zombies map “The Tomb” from BO 6 in the “End Game.” That’s in addition to the 4 official remake maps (Hijacked, Raid, Nuketown, Express) and 2 more on the way in Season 1 (Standoff and Meltdown).
With this much corner cutting and reuse, it’s obvious the game needed more time in the oven. We used to switch developers and sub-series every year between Infinity Ward, Treyarch, and Sledgehammer. Now everybody works together on everything, and the teams get burned out and out of ideas and out of time. Same thing happened in Modern Warfare III. Lots of great new ideas and a lot of it works, but the story suffered because they just recycled the original MW3 plot, done worse, and the original MW2 multiplayer maps. Give your people more time to do more creative, original things, Activision!