It hasn’t been the best week at Blizzardso let’s check it out and see how it goes with something other than Overwatch 2 How…Ah, Company management emails about how AI tools will help design character outfits and “generate concept art.” Nice.
Shannon Liao, writes for The New York Times
He speaks of “Blizzard Diffusion” –a nod to Stable Diffusion, one of the most popular AI imaging platforms– and says it’s currently “used to create concept art for game environments, as well as characters and their outfits,” he adds Blizzard is reviewing other AI implementations for everything from “Autonomous, intelligent NPCs in the game” To “Procedurally Assisted Level Design”. “Voice Cloning”, “Game Coding” and “Antitoxicity”.
Blizzard is one of the best known and until recently most reliable video game studios in the world. It has survived for decades not only because it produces great games, but also because it fills up these games with unforgettable characters. Hearing the folks at the company excited about allowing robots trained to serve an algorithmic horrorl, even take over some
Pretty much the only good news to be found in the whole story – which also includes mentions of similar efforts from around the world gloriole Studios 343 to Ubisoft– is the fact that another AI approach that Blizzard tried (and even patented) has already been scrapped because “The tool took up too much of the artist’s time to be effective.”
