At the end of March, Kotaku reported on the story that Max Hejtmánek, the English editor and voiceover director of Warhorse Studios’ Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, had announced on Reddit that his role at the studio had been made obsolete “in favor of using AI for all translations going forward.” Well, they say an elephant never forgets, and I guess Warhorse fans don’t either, because the studio had to spend the better part of a day defending itself against accusations of replacing staffers with AI during a Reddit AMA yesterday.
As spotted by IGN, yesterday’s AMA (Ask Me Anything) thread on the r/gaming subreddit was a monumental disaster for Warhorse Studios. The Q&A session was held by five of Warhorse Studios’ most senior members of staff, including creative directors Viktor Bocan and Prokop Jirsa, and the overwhelming majority of questions pitched focused on Max Hejtmánek’s claims in March.
While many of the tongue-in-cheek questions went unanswered, including one asking if Warhorse Studios was planning to use a “Gemini premium subscription” to translate its next game, the team did take a shot at answering some of them. One user even asked, “I always dreamt of working as a translator for Warhorse Studios, do you think I have a chance?” to which Jirsa replied, “Definitely. We are currently in the process of hiring new translators. Yes, actual humans. Plural.”
It’s a far cry from the official response Kotaku received from Warhorse Studios on March 30, as a spokesperson for the studio replied to our request for comment by stating, “Warhorse Studios has always been a talent-driven studio, and we deeply value the people who shape our work. Out of respect for the privacy and dignity of both current and former colleagues, we will not discuss individual situations publicly.”
However, the derailment of the AMA clearly took its toll on the devs at Warhorse Studios, as a moderator for r/gaming stepped in to post a locked comment featuring an official statement from the team: “We hear you and your concerns. Hopefully this explains the situation a bit. We do not see AI as a substitute for human work, and we are currently looking to expand the company, including our translation team. Some team members find AI useful during early stages of production. However, we do not use AI-generated content in the final game and we have no plans to change this in the future.”
Honestly, I’m surprised that Warhorse Studios didn’t see this kind of response coming in the first place. The sentiment toward AI-generated content you’re likely to encounter online varies greatly from community to community, but nobody hates it more than the gaming communities on Reddit. On the plus side, hopefully the negative response to utilizing AI slop in games served as a bit of a wake-up call for the studio.
