04-03-2025
Activision Apparently Using AI Art to Float Concepts for Guitar Hero, Crash Bandicoot
Crash Bandicoot: Brawl and Call of Duty: Zombie Defender are not games that actually exist (yet), but social-media users on platforms such as Instagram are still seeing seemingly AI-generated ads from Activision, the company that owns those franchises.
A representative for Activision did not respond to a request for comment, and has not commented publicly about the ads.
Several gaming sites have pointed to examples users have encountered. One, for example, features a new Guitar Hero Mobile game that has not been announced and is not known to even be in development. Users say the ads lead to a marketing survey about whether it's the type of game they'd want to play.
Apart from the fictitious nature of the ads, or concepts, Activision has drawn criticism for the quality of the art images, which are believed to be AI-generated. The art has drawn comparisons to AI slop, basically AI imagery or videos that are no better than spam.
Activision has been caught in the crossfire recently over another instance of AI usage. Last week the company confirmed that parts of recent games including Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 used AI-generated content.
