Update 22/03/2026: Developer Pearl Abyss has admitted to using Generative AI (GenAI) for the art assets players spotted below, and has added a disclosure on the game's Steam page which, per SteamDB, went up at the same time earlier this morning.
The studio claims that the assets were created "as part of early-stage iteration using experimental AI generative tools" and that the assets helped the team "rapidly explore tone and atmosphere in the earlier phases of production." Which does appear to make sense, considering that paintings where you can't tell where the person begins and the horse ends, or whether any of the humans have a nose separate from their mouth sets the right tone for a game that its harshest critics would say feels like a hodgepodge of features that fail to come together.
Pearl Abyss alleges that its intention was always "for any such assets to be replaced," though that clearly did not happen. The studio took full responsibility for these assets making their way into the final build, and gave an apology for not being transparent about its use of GenAI tools in the first place.
It also added that it is conducting "a comprehensive audit of all in-game assets" to replace any other GenAI content that may have been missed. It is also doing a review of its internal processes "to ensure greater transparency and consistency in how we communicate with players moving forward." Not lying, either directly or by omission, would probably be a good place to start.
Original Story:
Crimson Desert finally arrived yesterday after multiple delays and years of waiting, and its launch has been mixed, to say the least. On the one hand, the game has already sold 2 million copies. On the other, critic and user consensus is decidedly mixed, while some critics (like Wccftech's Francesco De Meo) have loved their time with it, many are on the very opposite end, resulting in a Metacritic score of 78, while its user reviews on Steam launched at 'Mixed' but have since become 'Mostly Positive.'
While the game caught a fair amount of flak online for adding Denuvo a week before release, it seems like another wave of criticism is about to hit it because players have already discovered what is believed to be AI-generated art used in the game, particularly for an asset that is supposed to be some kind of historical painting.
Found and shared online by user Rex_Spy on Reddit, the image is very clearly not the kind of thing you'd expect a human to draw if they were trying to draw a scene from a historical battle, even in a fictional world. Unless of course, Crimson Desert's setting of Pywell is a place where human faces just stopped having features, and horse legs grow out of humans (or human bodies out of horse legs, it's difficult to tell).
This also isn't the only example, but it is the most obvious one. Other posts on Reddit have shared similar instances of paintings found in-game that appear to be AI-generated based on the fact that they miss the mark on key details a human artist wouldn't.
Players online have already begun to criticize Pearl Abyss for including assets like this while the game's Steam page does not include a disclosure that GenAI tools or AI-generated assets were used in making the game or included in the final product. While Valve changed its policy back in 2024 requiring that developers include such disclosures, the onus is on the developers themselves to be honest about it.
Some are, but there's no guarantee that everyone will be forthcoming about any GenAI tech used in their game-making, considering how controversial GenAI tools in game development are. There are also questions about how Valve's process works. While a recent survey indicated that a majority of developers believe there should be such disclosures, they weren't as aligned on how it should be done, with most believing Valve's current approach to be flawed.
What's certain is that players will certainly be on the look out for more assets like this in Crimson Desert, and it'll be interesting to see if Pearl Abyss decides to change them, or simply leave them and add the disclosure to their Steam page. Ultimately, while it's immersion-breaking in the moment, AI-generated assets like this won't have a major impact on your experience with the game, since there's a lot more to do in the open world of Pywell beyond staring at paintings.
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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