We doubt that discussion of generation AI in gaming is going away anytime soon, and the latest person to chime in on the debate is John “Bucky” Buckley, the head of publishing and communications at Pocketpair, the developers of Palworld. According to Bucky, the solution is simple – just don’t use AI – because “gamers don’t want it” and it’s not strictly essential for devs.

Palworld took the gaming world by storm (and attracted Nintendo’s lawyers) when it released into early access in 2024. The Pokémon-inspired open-world title has been much quieter since its initial boom, but the developers are quickly approaching their version 1.0 release on July 10. The update is said to be so big that the number of changes will shock you.

Palworld devs are happy to work without relying on AI

In a recent chat with GamesRadar+, speaking on the topic of generative AI, Buckley plainly claims that “Gamers don’t want it”. “And if the gamers don’t want it, I guess that’s it, right? Not much of a conversation to be had,” he added. That essentially demonstrates his opinion on the matter in a nutshell, though there are multiple facets of AI to consider.

More than 1,700 games in Steam’s Next Fest this month come with a generative AI warning, and painfully obvious AI art assets on store pages simply aren’t appealing. He’s less certain about the future of AI-assisted code, but the publishing lead suggests AI art is low-effort. “I think people will look at it and say, ‘Did you need to do that?’ Couldn’t you just do it yourself?,” he said.

“I’m sure some people are doing it. It’s not really for us. I personally can’t imagine it ever being too prominent. I’m sure there are some companies out there, some big companies, that are maybe using it to save time. I don’t know. I don’t really think gen AI has much – I don’t want to call it a bubble, but I don’t know how much longer it’s gonna keep up. Even Steam is pushing back a certain amount on it.”

John “Bucky” Buckley, Communications Director & Publishing Manager at Pocketpair

Buckley says Pocketpair has “a lot of artists in-house,” so there’s no need to rely on AI to pick up any slack. He says the artists working on Palworld “like doing stuff themselves,” adding that “there’s no reason to get rid of them for the sake of an AI doing it; just seems pointless”. Some markets are more willing to experiment, but he predicts gamers will remain against it “for a while”.

He has previously discussed the idea of being ‘100% human-made’ as a marketing ploy, though he says “it’s a bit dystopian that it might end up like that”. He probably just prefers the pride of not needing an AI warning on Palworld’s Steam store page.

About the Author

Jack Goodall

At PC Guide, Jack is mostly responsible for reporting on hardware deals. He also specializes in monitors, TVs, and headsets and can be found putting his findings together in a review or best-of guide.