Larian Studios found itself at the center of attention and controversy within days of revealing its next project. While the announcement of the new Divinity thrilled fans, comments from CEO Swen Vincke about generative AI quickly sparked a backlash.
Larian Studios made headlines at The Game Awards with the reveal of its next major project, a new entry in the Divinity series. According to the studio, the game will be even larger in scope than Baldur’s Gate 3. Despite the announcement leaking ahead of the show, it still became one of the most talked-about moments of the night.
The mood shifted shortly after. In an interview with Bloomberg, Swen Vincke confirmed that Divinity will once again be a turn-based RPG and claimed it would surpass Baldur’s Gate 3 in quality. What triggered outrage online, however, was his confirmation that Larian has incorporated generative AI tools into its development pipeline.
Vincke acknowledged that there was internal resistance to using generative AI but said the studio ultimately came to accept it. That explanation failed to satisfy many players, and criticism soon followed not only from fans but also from former Larian developers.
In response, Vincke issued a statement to IGN clarifying that Larian has no intention of replacing developers with AI or releasing a game containing AI-generated content.
“We’re continuously expanding our teams of concept artists, writers, and storytellers. Any well-used machine learning tool is additive to a creative team’s workflow, not a replacement. We are not releasing a game with any AI components, nor are we trimming teams to replace them with AI.”
Vincke also addressed the criticism directly on social media, forcefully rejecting the idea that Larian is pushing artists out in favor of AI.
Holy fuck guys we’re not “pushing hard” for or replacing concept artists with AI.
We have a team of 72 artists of which 23 are concept artists and we are hiring more…
— Swen Vincke (@LarAtLarian) December 16, 2025
The situation highlights just how explosive the topic of generative AI remains within game development, where trust can erode almost instantly.
