{"id":571349,"date":"2026-03-29T04:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T04:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/571349\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T04:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T04:26:10","slug":"owlcat-says-everything-in-its-new-expanse-rpg-will-definitely-100-percent-be-human-made-but-also-that-generative-ai-will-be-used-for-vision-coordination-and-inspiration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/571349\/","title":{"rendered":"Owlcat says everything in its new Expanse RPG &#8216;will definitely 100 percent be human-made,&#8217; but also that generative AI will be used for &#8216;vision coordination&#8217; and &#8216;inspiration&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"elk-2f55dcd2-a410-4c00-9019-54646f1497c0\">It&#8217;s only Saturday afternoon, so there&#8217;s still time for you to be at your most disappointed this week. CRPG magnate Owlcat recently reiterated that its upcoming action RPG, The Expanse: Osiris Reborn, is making use of generative AI in its development\u2014though the studio is trying to assure players it&#8217;s not a big deal.<\/p>\n<p>As PR manager Katharina Popp <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/owlcat-gen-ai-expanse-osiris-reborn\" target=\"_blank\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/owlcat-gen-ai-expanse-osiris-reborn\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">told Eurogamer<\/a>, &#8220;We don&#8217;t use it to create any assets that will be in the game \u2026 We use it a lot for prototyping, trying things out, placeholders. They will all be replaced at the end.&#8221; She continued that &#8220;it&#8217;s basically for being able to iterate faster. But we don&#8217;t use it to write, we don&#8217;t use AI voice actors, so everything that will be in the final version will definitely 100 percent be human made.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"elk-seasonal\"\/><\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-2f55dcd2-a410-4c00-9019-54646f1497c0-2\" class=\"paywall\" aria-hidden=\"true\">This is in line with what the studio shared <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/OwlcatGames\/status\/1763946679470788722\" target=\"_blank\" data-url=\"https:\/\/x.com\/OwlcatGames\/status\/1763946679470788722\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">in a post on X<\/a> two years ago when user anafigreen shared a screenshot of a job listing for a concept artist at Owlcat which listed &#8220;concept generation using AI&#8221; as an example work task. The studio replied saying that &#8220;AI will be used exclusively for additional work with concepts and speeding up some internal processes,&#8221; and not for final versions of art. Examples it gave were &#8220;creative search, inspiration, or vision coordination before starting conceptualization itself.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Article continues below <\/p>\n<p>            You may like<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not clear how &#8220;inspiration&#8221; and &#8220;creative search&#8221; are different from or necessarily predate conceptualization\u2014these are all wordy ways to describe someone having an idea\u2014and I&#8217;m not entirely sure why AI is necessary to develop concepts for a game with both a TV series and nine novels to pull from. But Popp&#8217;s note about prototypes and placeholders seems to be the go-to defense for AI in games right now.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\" aria-hidden=\"true\">When <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/rpg\/crimson-desert-team-apologizes-after-players-find-ai-art-in-the-game-our-intention-has-always-been-for-any-such-assets-to-be-replaced\/\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/rpg\/crimson-desert-team-apologizes-after-players-find-ai-art-in-the-game-our-intention-has-always-been-for-any-such-assets-to-be-replaced\/\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/rpg\/crimson-desert-team-apologizes-after-players-find-ai-art-in-the-game-our-intention-has-always-been-for-any-such-assets-to-be-replaced\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">players spotted AI-generated art in Crimson Desert<\/a>, developer Pearl Abyss said any such assets were prototypes intended to be replaced. <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/city-builder\/ubisoft-touches-up-ai-art-placeholder-that-slipped-into-anno-117-but-fans-are-not-happy-it-was-there-to-begin-with-of-all-the-video-games-not-anno\/\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/city-builder\/ubisoft-touches-up-ai-art-placeholder-that-slipped-into-anno-117-but-fans-are-not-happy-it-was-there-to-begin-with-of-all-the-video-games-not-anno\/\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/city-builder\/ubisoft-touches-up-ai-art-placeholder-that-slipped-into-anno-117-but-fans-are-not-happy-it-was-there-to-begin-with-of-all-the-video-games-not-anno\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Anno 117: Pax Romana<\/a> and <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/rpg\/indie-game-awards-pulls-two-awards-from-clair-obscur-over-generative-ai-use-we-have-a-hard-stance-against-gen-ai-in-videogames\/\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/rpg\/indie-game-awards-pulls-two-awards-from-clair-obscur-over-generative-ai-use-we-have-a-hard-stance-against-gen-ai-in-videogames\/\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/rpg\/indie-game-awards-pulls-two-awards-from-clair-obscur-over-generative-ai-use-we-have-a-hard-stance-against-gen-ai-in-videogames\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Clair Obscur: Expedition 33<\/a> gave similar explanations when they encountered similar controversies. CRPG all-star Larian <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/rpg\/larian-swears-off-gen-ai-concept-art-tools-and-says-there-is-not-going-to-be-any-genai-art-in-divinity-but-its-still-trying-ai-things-out-across-departments\/\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/rpg\/larian-swears-off-gen-ai-concept-art-tools-and-says-there-is-not-going-to-be-any-genai-art-in-divinity-but-its-still-trying-ai-things-out-across-departments\/\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/rpg\/larian-swears-off-gen-ai-concept-art-tools-and-says-there-is-not-going-to-be-any-genai-art-in-divinity-but-its-still-trying-ai-things-out-across-departments\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">partially swore off generative AI<\/a> after <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/rpg\/baldurs-gate-3-developer-larian-defends-itself-as-fans-react-to-generative-ai-use-im-not-entirely-sure-we-are-the-ideal-target-for-the-level-of-scorn\/\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/rpg\/baldurs-gate-3-developer-larian-defends-itself-as-fans-react-to-generative-ai-use-im-not-entirely-sure-we-are-the-ideal-target-for-the-level-of-scorn\/\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/rpg\/baldurs-gate-3-developer-larian-defends-itself-as-fans-react-to-generative-ai-use-im-not-entirely-sure-we-are-the-ideal-target-for-the-level-of-scorn\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">sharing that it used the technology<\/a> in &#8220;the very early ideation stages&#8221; of development.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\" aria-hidden=\"true\">Players on social media are not happy. Bluesky user tickdowntozero <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/tickdowntozero.bsky.social\/post\/3mhycewc24s22\" target=\"_blank\" data-url=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/tickdowntozero.bsky.social\/post\/3mhycewc24s22\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">replied<\/a> to a thread about the Eurogamer article saying, &#8220;You can&#8217;t have 100% human made AND use Gen AI. Made it easy to ignore this game though.&#8221; &#8220;Oh man this response pissed people off the last 47 times developers used it but maybe if we use it completely unchanged it&#8217;ll work for us,&#8221; User Dylan Macri <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/dylanmacri.bsky.social\/post\/3mi3x6wq2kc2a\" target=\"_blank\" data-url=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/dylanmacri.bsky.social\/post\/3mi3x6wq2kc2a\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">said in a quote repost<\/a> of the story.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\" aria-hidden=\"true\">&#8220;Makes me sad that as a creative that AI prototyping will be a norm,&#8221; <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/OwlcatGames\/comments\/1s4k9uw\/everything_in_the_final_version_will_definitely\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/OwlcatGames\/comments\/1s4k9uw\/everything_in_the_final_version_will_definitely\/\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">said<\/a> Reddit user Cold-Engineering-960. &#8220;It&#8217;s just an expedited way to get inspiration from things, but it feels dirty, even if you remove the trained on stolen art part.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"newsletter-form__strapline\">Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"elk-collectionwidget-24b8c9a10efc6c09fbc7b916f97f1745\" class=\"paywall\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><a id=\"elk-fa0a3198-3762-4288-8a0f-c391a767f13f\" class=\"paywall\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It&#8217;s only Saturday afternoon, so there&#8217;s still time for you to be at your most disappointed this week.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,105],"class_list":["post-571349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}