Learn about how gender, age, and gaming motivations shape the perception of Gen AI in video games.

In a recent survey, we explored gamers’ attitudes towards the use of Gen AI in video games and whether those attitudes varied by demographics and gaming motivations. The overwhelmingly negative attitude stood out compared to other surveys we’ve run over the past decade.

In an optional survey (N=1,799) we ran from October through December 2025 alongside the Gamer Motivation Profile, we invited gamers to answer additional questions after they had looked at their profile results. Some of these questions were specifically about attitudes towards Gen AI in video games.

Overall, the attitude towards the use of Gen AI in video games is very negative. 85% of respondents have a below-neutral attitude towards the use of Gen AI in video games, with a highly-skewed 63% who selected the most negative response option.

Such a highly-skewed negative response is rare in the many years we’ve conducted survey research among gamers. As a point of comparison, in 2024 Q2-Q4, we collected survey data on attitudes towards a variety of game features. The chart below shows the % negative (i.e., below neutral) responses for each mentioned feature. In that survey, 79% had a negative attitude towards blockchain-based games. This helps anchor where the attitude towards Gen AI currently sits. We’ll come back to the “AI-generated quests/dialogue” feature later in this blog post since we break down the specific AI use in another survey question.

  • thingsiplay@beehaw.org
    55·
    5 months ago

    The fact that Clair Obscure Expedition 33 was well received as the best game of the year, and found out there was some use of Ai afterwards… tanked it reputation. But the results speak for themselves. This game does not look like Ai slop. This means, companies are motivated to hide this fact even more.

    • Hegar@fedia.io
      13·
      5 months ago

      My understanding is they only generated some textures, which everyone noticed and complained about, so they had to patch in human-created textures to replace them.

      They also lost a goty award because they lied about having never used ai.

      I don’t think either of those situations would encourage hidden use of ai.

      • Pyr@lemmy.ca
        1·
        5 months ago

        What I read was that they just used AI on some placeholder work which was already replaced by human made stuff before release but the AI stuff could still be found in the files.

    • Ryanmiller70@lemmy.zip
      6·
      5 months ago

      From what I remember people knew about the AI thing for a long time, but forgave it cause it was replaced immediately after release. I think what makes people upset at Lairion now is that they’re trying to dance around the AI problem instead of discussing it directly. They come up with tons of excuses whenever asked instead of just strongly sticking to their choice. It’s like whenever any big company gets called out for doing something stupid. They just do bad PR nonsense instead of saying what they actually mean.