When Larian Studios announced Divinity at The Game Awards 2025, players couldn't be more excited for the studio that brought them Baldur's Gate 3 to return to the other fantasy RPG series under its belt, which is actually bigger than Baldur's Gate. Days later, Larian is embroiled in controversy after its chief executive officer, Swen Vincke, admitted that the studio uses generative AI technology in its development pipeline.
Vincke has already responded to the first wave of backlash that has hit him and the studio with criticism for using GenAI, though the blunt nature of his response has done anything but quell the backlash he and the studio have received. Amidst all of this, game writers and narrative designers have popped up online to speak out against Larian, not just for its GenAI use, but for what they find to be poor hiring practices.
It's common across several industries that when applying for a job, besides submitting a resume and being the subject of potentially multiple rounds of interviews, you'll be asked to perform a test to show your prospective employer your work on something they've assigned you. If you're a writer applying to a writing position at a game studio, you should probably expect a writing test at some point in the interview process.
But writing tests as a practice are themselves a point of controversy, because writers are sometimes asked to do these tests for free. Usually, if you're being asked to do a writing test for a studio, it's because you're one of the few finalists for a potential role, so it's common for studios to pay those few writers for their time to submit the test. Yes, these people are applying for a job, but no one likes to work for free. Larian, however, according to writers like Zoë Quinn, a game writer who most recently was the lead writer on Alien: Rogue Incursion, does not offer to pay writers for writing tests.
Quinn spoke out about their experience being recruited by Larian, an avenue they ultimately turned down due to Larian Studios' disallowing remote work and asking for an unpaid writing test that Quinn would also have to make playable.
Bruno Dias, a game writer who has worked on titles like Pathologic 2, Neo Cab, and Fallout: London chimed in to add "Larian's horrible hiring process is an open secret int he industry - insane amounts of unpaid work in 'writing tests,' excessive numbers of interviews, months and months of back and forth, etc. Everyone in games narrative circles has heard the stories at this point, probably from multiple people."
Julie Muncy, a writer on Interstate 35, added, "If you see narrative people being meaner about larian than it sounds like they deserve, trust me, we've been waiting for this one," and "the thing about larian is that i think a lot of us were biting our tongues out of respect for the writers working there and the stuff they did make. but if larian doesn't respect those either, then, like, that incentive disappears."
Cat Manning, a narrative designer at Firaxis, also through their voice to the fire, hinting at a "throughline" between Larian Studios use of generative AI and a misunderstanding of proper hiring practices when it comes to unpaid writing tests.
Other writers, like Olivia Wood, spoke up to say that the reason game writers and narrative designers haven't spoken out about these poor practices before is to try not to burn bridges among the narrative and game writer community, since jobs for everyone are scarce.
Wherever you may land on Larian Studios using generative AI, it's clear that the studio's use of the technology and its response to the backlash have only emboldened the studio's critics to be louder. That's not to take anything away from their valid complaints, just a point to say that Larian is not necessarily the industry darling we might've once believed it to be.
That said, Daniel Vávra, founder and creative director of Warhorse Studios, the team behind Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, has, at least so far, been the only major studio to come to Larian's defence regarding its use of GenAI.
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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