Head of Palworld's Communications Says 'Gamers Don't Want' Generative A.I. In Their Video Games
"I'm sure some people are doing it. It's not really for us"
"ColonelFancy" Mike Lind
6/20/20262 min read
Gamers don't want it - John Buckley
Generative A.I. is becoming a technology that is having a stronger grip on almost all facets of the workforce and how major, and even smaller companies operate with man power. It barely matters how strong the push-back from fans intensifies, the video game industry seems to be embracing it. At the recent 2026 Summer Game Fest, a handful of projects came under scrutiny for the use of A.I. elements. Namely the revival of Crazy Taxi, Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, and 1666 Amsterdam.
Among the studios at Summer Game Fest was Pocket Pair, the development team behind Palworld. One of 2024's surprise hits, Palworld found a solid fan base as a resource managing survival game, despite its seemingly controversial character designs that draw comparisons to Game Freak's Pokemon franchise. When speaking with Games Radar, the topic of Generative A.I. came up to Pocket Pair's communications head and why its divisiveness is a reason they have chosen to stay away from it.
"Gamers don't want it," Buckley states, "and if the gamers don't want it, I guess that's it, right? Not much of a conversation to be had."
A line of recently released games have come under fire for the use of A.I. assets. Hotta Studios' Neverness to Everness, an open world action RPG was called out for its strong utilization of A.I. images for many in-game billboard material. The studio has stated they were placeholders, and a lot were removed and replaced with original images. Last year's sweeping succes, Expedition 33, was revoked of an award from the Independent Game Awards for using A.I. as placeholders in development.
Palworld exists early access and will see a full release July 10th
Palworld itself faced accusations that is uses Generative A.I. in its game, a position that has been refuted by the company and Buckley.
"I'm sure some people are doing it," he continues. "It's not really for us. I personally can't imagine it ever being too prominent. I'm sure there are some companies out there, some big companies, that are maybe using it to 'save time.' I don't know. I don't really think gen AI has much – I don't want to call it a bubble, but I don't know how much longer it's gonna keep up. Even Steam is pushing back a certain amount on it."
Many of the top studios have likely prepped for a future with A.I, powering a portion of the development. Regardless of the economic impact, as well as the environmental consequences of the expanding data centers, it has barely stopped companies from wanting to take advantage of it. Buckley has assured that Pocket Pair has a lot of in-house artists to create their works.
"They like doing stuff themselves. There's no reason to get rid of them for the sake of an AI doing it. Just seems pointless."
SOURCE: GamesRadar