Last night during PlayStation's State of Play event for June 2026, Crystal Dynamics and Flying Wild Hog showcased more of Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, and also confirmed rumours that it had been delayed into next year with the announcement of a February 12, 2027, release date. After the dust settled, however, and the initial craze of all the announcements had passed, players spotted a key point on the game's Steam page: a disclosure that Generative AI (GenAI) tools were used in an "early exploration" phase of development.
The statement on the game's Steam page reads, "AI-assisted tools were used during development to support some early exploration and temporary development content. Any AI-assisted assets were either replaced or refined by humans in order to maintain the creative and artistic vision of the development team."
We reached out to Crystal Dynamics for further clarification on how GenAI tools were used in Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis' development, but did not receive a response ahead of publishing.
The topic of GenAI tools and game developers using them continues to be a controversial point across the industry, and there's no sign of that changing in the near future. Even as we see more studios move towards increased GenAI use, and some developers speak about it like an inevitability that's not worth fighting, there's a clear subset of creators that will likely remain unconvinced that GenAI tools actually benefit their work in any way.
Players, too, are unconvinced of the benefits that come from using GenAI tools, and whenever a developer admits to using them, there's usually a public outcry and backlash towards that studio. On the flip side, any steps taken away from GenAI use are praised. But either way, it doesn't seem to have any bearing on the games players buy.
ARC Raiders, Crimson Desert, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 are three of the highest-profile cases of games that we know were made with the help of GenAI tools in the process, and all of them had a case of those assets making it into the final game as player-facing assets. Two of those three faced a wave of backlash for not initially disclosing their use of GenAI tools, but that didn't stop any of them from being commercial and critical successes.
ARC Raiders has shot past 16 million copies sold since October 2025. Crimson Desert is already one of the best-selling games in the US for 2026. Clair Obscur won more Game of the Year awards than any other game in history so far and has over 8 million copies sold.
And those are just three of the several examples of successful games that have used GenAI tools in their development. While it's certainly still up for debate as to whether the kinds of GenAI tools we see today will inevitably be a part of the game development process like any other, what's keeping that future possible is the fact that players aren't voting against it with their wallets.
As long as whatever public controversy caused by developers using GenAI doesn't meaningfully impact their bottom line, we're going to continue seeing studios at all levels, though especially at the triple-A scale, continue to experiment with the technology.
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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