The French publisher, which will be mentioned again later today, has also joined the ranks of those who have visibly used generative artificial intelligence to create artistic elements.

Ubisoft has officially supported the idea that AI and game development go hand in hand for several years. Anno 117: Pax Romana is the first Ubisoft game on Steam with AI-generated content. However, the statement emphasizes that the final product reflects the expertise and creative vision of the development team. This vision apparently includes rather strange background characters with lumps instead of hands. An Imgur gallery shows some blurry, dubious figures in one of the game’s illustrations. Kotaku shared another illustration showing Roman senators with similarly strange appearances. One senator, for example, has no head.

Kotaku also shared a quote from Ubisoft explaining the image and suggesting a fix. They said that this image was a placeholder that accidentally slipped through the review process. The final image will replace the current version after patch 1.3. The statement notes that, since Anno 117 is the studio’s most ambitious Anno game to date, AI tools supplemented the largest art team in the franchise’s history. While the new image looks slightly better, one might question whether it is a placeholder when the final version is nearly identical. This raises the question of how much of the illustrations are AI-based. After all, it seems that the only modification here was repainting the ugliest part of the AI element.

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byu/MedicaeVal from discussion
inanno

German text localization is still AI generated in the release version
byu/taubenangriff inanno

Someone on Reddit wrote that this post convinced them not to buy the game. It shows that the graphics were created with AI and that this image is simply not on the same level as Anno 1800. If the developers use cheap assets, players will wait until the game becomes cheaper. Another user expressed disappointment that Anno also relies on AI because they loved Anno 1800 for its beautiful graphics.

Players are also expressing concern that certain language localizations are allegedly AI-generated.

Source: PCGamer, Steam, Imgur, Imgur, Kotaku