Overwatch game director Aaron Keller has stated that developer Blizzard has no intention of releasing AI-generated content in the game, with the company instead aiming for the hero shooter to have a “handcrafted” feel to it. At the same time, Blizzard president Johanna Faries outlined the company’s overall approach to AI, saying the technology holds many possible benefits.
“We don’t want to put AI-generated content out in front of players. That’s just not something that we’re comfortable doing. We want this to feel like a handcrafted universe, and it is a handcrafted universe,” Keller told GameSpot.
Keller told Eurogamer that Blizzard does not use AI to “create characters or gameplay,” at least not “right now,” suggesting that could change in the future.
“I think Blizzard as a whole is known for handcrafted games and handcrafted worlds. So, we try to pour all of our creative energy and all of our passion into doing that,” Keller said. “For us, it is more important to get the details right, and to make sure that the gameplay is as impeccable as it can be and withholds the Blizzard standard, rather than trying to make something as quick as we possibly can.”
Blizzard’s view on AI overall
Faries, the president of Blizzard, said she wants to enable the company’s development teams to “utilize or explore whatever new technology is out there,” including AI, but only “to the extent that they’re comfortable doing with it what we believe is responsible.”
She added that Blizzard has a “centralized governance team” focused solely on AI, with the directive of trying to determine the role AI “can or should play in our development cycles.”
“What’s great about that is it’s very cross-functional, so you’re going to have voices from around the horn thinking about not just what’s hot-topic now, but where do we want to be five, 10 years from now?” she said. “What’s the implication on our teams? What’s the implication on our values? How do we make sure that we don’t stymie the opportunity for devs, artists, whomever, to want to play with new tools and play in the sandbox, if it unlocks creativity or gets rid of drudgery or what have you? We want happy devs, right?”
She went on to say that AI technologies have the capability of becoming an “accelerate in our creative process,” but, again, only if the company decides that how it’s using AI is understood to be “responsible.” Of course, that word has no strict definition. Whatever the case, Faries said she feels “very good” about the steps that Blizzard has taken to potentially use AI in a safe and responsible way.
“I want the teams to feel safe, to explore to the extent that it drives joy in the work. And I think we have a good process, all up, in terms of making sure we’re doing it in a responsible manner,” she said.
Blizzard is owned by Microsoft, and that company is adopting a different approach. Microsoft is spending many billions of dollars to create all manner of AI-enabled content and products in the future. It’s even building nuclear reactors to power its AI ambitions.
Blizzard also makes World of Warcraft, and the developer said in 2024 that it does not use generative AI for the MMORPG. Activision, meanwhile, has readily admitted that it uses generative AI to create some Call of Duty content.
Blizzard unveiled a series of updates for Overwatch 2 today, including a name change. Going forward, Overwatch 2 will drop the “2” and instead be called simply Overwatch. The original Overwatch shut down back in 2022, so the name is freed up.
In other news, Overwatch is adding five new characters, including a cat. The addition of five new characters is going to disrupt the meta, and Blizzard is aware of this. You can read more about the sweeping changes to Overwatch in our hands-on preview.
