Owlcat Games, the studio behind Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, faced public scrutiny over its stance on artificial intelligence in art creation. The controversy began with the posting of a concept artist vacancy that explicitly mentioned the use of neural networks to generate concept art. The listing indicated familiarity with modern AI tools like Stable Diffusion, Dalle, and Midjourney. Shortly after, the studio amended the posting, removing references to AI from the requirements.
Early March brought a reaction from Anna Fedina, a Blizzard concept artist, who publicly commented that she would not want to collaborate with Owlcat Games given the vacancy. The exchange gained momentum on social media, drawing thousands of likes and sparking a wider discussion about AI in game art development.
I really wanted to work on Owlcat games at the start of my career and now I have second thoughts about that possibility. This seems to be the first major studio role for a game that called for AI generated art. This is how Fedina expressed her concerns
Following the viral response, Owlcat Games issued an official clarifying message. The studio stated that neural networks would be used only in the early phases of development as a working tool to assist with certain concepts and internal processes such as search, inspiration, and aligning the artistic vision before concrete development moves forward. The final game visuals and all final concepts would be created by human artists, and no neural network output would appear in the finished product. The studio also noted that past projects Rogue Trader and Pathfinder did not rely on neural networks at all and apologized for any confusion caused by previous wording.
Whether Owlcat is currently pursuing a specific project remains unclear. The company had released a pixel shooter on Xbox Game Pass titled Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun. The broader industry chatter around AI in game development continues to evolve as studios weigh the tradeoffs between speed, inspiration, and the integrity of original artwork. The topic remains a live discussion in the Canadian and American game development communities and among players who value traditional artistry alongside cutting edge technology. A recent wave of AR and wearable tech innovations, including lightweight devices with AI assisted features, has kept this conversation in the foreground of product development discussions. VG Times provided background coverage on these developments.