Even though Battlefield 6 may have performed the previously unthinkable feat of dethroning this year’s mighty Call of Duty juggernaut as the best selling FPS title of the year, it seems EA’s flagship shooter is unable to escape the AI debacle which at this point comes across as hugely disappointing and divisive for a lot of reasons. Recently, a part of the playerbase have spotted a card sticker in Battlefield 6’s new ‘Windchill’ cosmetics bundle which seems to have been made by generative AI and thus have sparked a heated reaction across social media.
The sticker in question, which was first shared in a subreddit, depict a soldier holding an M4A1, covered in snowflake but it’s the rather odd design of the weapon that has given rise to the question as to whether it was made by AI or not. And as expected, the image as well as Battlefield 6 has received quite a bit of flak for the likelyhood of the presence of generative AI in it’s artworks, however, it’s currently unconfirmed by EA whether or not it’s really the case. But whatever it may actually turn out to be, it’s still a situation that should’ve been avoided by EA and the devs, as it’s well known that gamers in general are highly opposed to AI usage in videogames, and for all the right reasons.
Battlefield 6 has built an incredible momentum in this year and the upcoming roadmap for next year which promises a steady stream of exciting in-game contents, could lead to an even bigger surge in it’s player base, provided the game doesn’t shoot itself in the foot with AI generated contents. Unfortunately, the mega-corporations who own and control gaming today, have taken the industry to a point where the players are not really listened to, which is the root cause that leads to studios using AI in game development in the first place. Hopefully EA manages to address the situation swiftly before it escalates to newer heights which wouldn’t be desirable for obvious reasons.
