2025 has seen AI dominate various forms of media, leading to a significant impact across the entire spectrum of the world, including the gaming industry. However, this is merely the tip of the iceberg, and the impact is likely to intensify in 2026.
The past 12 months have seen AI become increasingly prominent in gaming, ranging from additions like an AI-voiced Darth Vader in Fortnite to a fully AI-generated game, with a smattering of other controversies in between.
While these incidents have sparked discussions at various points of the year, 2025 is set to be only a drop in the ocean for AI in video games, and a huge crossroads lurks ahead.
A Major Turning Point
It’s important to remember that AI in video games isn’t anything new, and the fact of the matter is, games would simply not be able to run without some AI. All of the enemy soldiers you defeat in a Call of Duty campaign, the opponents you come up against in single-player in EA FC 26, and the NPCs you meet across the vast worlds require AI, in some capacity, to work.
The turning point, however, has been how AI is being used. Rather than using AI to support human-created elements, that step is being skipped in many cases to reduce the workload and have AI do the creation, where it’s artwork to coding. While it’s a crucial tool that can help prevent crunch at studios, controversy remains about its use and whether it will ultimately cost people their jobs.
Using AI as a replacement for human work has been problematic, and gamers have a keen eye to spot where AI has been used, particularly in artwork, with accusations cast towards a slew of major games for certain aspects of work published in 2025.
The discovery of AI use in 2025 has led to backlash, including the Indie Game Awards disqualifying Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 for generative AI usage and Battlefield 6 coming under fire for suspected use of AI in cosmetic items, and the big question now is how long that furore will last.
Will The Backlash Ease?
Heading into 2026, using AI, particularly generative AI, is somewhat of a death note, as it’s certain to cause backlash among gamers, and there’s no hiding any usage, as players don their detective gear to uncover the truth of whether AI has been used in assets. Essentially, it’s a PR nightmare.
What’s unclear is whether that backlash will remain, as the growing use of AI may eventually be the norm, rightly or wrongly. When used in the right way to support developers and ease tasks, AI is a handy tool, but it’s hard to look across the wealth of layoffs in the industry in recent years and see higher-ups not viewing AI as a handy cost-cutting measure.
This isn’t restricted to gaming, as the use of AI has attracted huge criticism in all forms of media, while it also has both environmental and political impacts. For now, the general view of AI is a negative one, but don’t be surprised if millions upon millions is splashed to try and alter public opinion.
AI use is not a problem unique to gaming, but the future does look bleak, particularly for those employed in a creative industry. Unfortunately, there are no signs of the problem going away, and 2026 could be the stage for a major shift.
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