Not every day you see how hell relaxes – literally and digitally. Mobile title Activision Blizzard Diablo Immortal They have just started the “Dark Rebirth” event, and with him released a set of promotional photos. But wait, fiery return? These visualizations were not drawn by human hands. They were conjured up with artificial intelligence.
According to Windows CentralActivision Blizzard King (ABK) used generative artificial intelligence to create a promotional art of the event. Tweet from the official Diablo Immortal The account is shared by amazing, gothic paintings with the #Diabloimmortal hashtag and a note that they were “created from AI”. Fans did not take much time to discover their digital forks.
And honestly? Can you blame them?
Let's talk about the mood in the community. On X (formerly Twitter) some players felt that the graphics looked “turned off” – expressed fingers, unnatural poses, classic features of AI images. One user commented on “This does not honor, what Diablo was built. You can't automatically generate the soul.” Another called it a “hit in the face” for professional artists who contributed to the iconic visual heritage of the franchise.
The indignation was not only about aesthetics – it was personal. Blizzard has long been proud of high loyalty, handmade design. Think about painted movies Diablo IIIor dirty, soaked dungeons Diablo II. This made Diablo … Diablo. So do you see a piece of promotional material made by a machine instead of artists? It hit the nerve.
This movement seems particularly deaf in the current atmosphere. Last year, Ubisoft aroused controversy by developing AI tools to write NPC dialogue. This advertisement caused hot debates on game forums about work displacement and creative quality. Fear is real: do corporations prioritize profit before craft?
And let's not forget about the elephant-size demon in the Blazrzard room he did Recently, go through the waves of layoffs, including from creative departments. As Kotaku reports at the beginning of this year, Microsoft reduced almost 1900 jobs from his game department, directly affecting Blizzard teams. When fans now see AI replacing people in promotional content, the optics are not only bad – they are hell.
Meanwhile, critics point to the irony of the use of artificial intelligence for a franchise, which has always bloomed in the atmosphere, knowledge and craftsmanship. Ai can be fast, obvious, but it did not bleed to passion – nightmares – canvas. You cannot cod in this sand.
By adding salt to the wound, Forbes recently emphasized how generative artificial intelligence, although flashy, is often unable to capture the nuances and details required in the production of high -class games. And let's face it – the fan can say. They can always.
So what is Blizzard's play here? Maybe they perceived it as an experiment. Maybe it was a budget saving a means. Or maybe they are trying to assess how far the AI envelope can push before the slack exceeds the benefits.
However, for some fans it can be a step too far. As Verge studied at the beginning of this year, the ethics of using AI in creative industries is a tangled network, and companies that ignore the risk of the numerical loss of trust of the most loyal observers.
At the end of the day, people do not fall in love with artificial intelligence – they fall in love with stories, characters, blood, sweat and human strangeness that lives the worlds. And when Diablo fans stare at the abyss of fire and sulfur generated by AI … they can't see hell. They just see shortcuts.
