The Outer Worlds 2 uses no AI, director says

Obsidian Entertainment veteran Leonard Boyarsky once theorized in a 2019 podcast that AI could change the game by increasing the depth of dialogue between the player and the non-player character.

“The computer could just run with it and the player could literally say — and not even have a list of things to choose from — but actually say what their reactions are and have the computer respond in real time,” Boyarsky speculated.

In a recent interview with Game File, Boyarsky expressed regret for the comments. “That was literally just my thought experiment,” he explained, saying he was tempted to smack his past self “on the head” for his naivety.

Obsidian does not use any AI

In a post-AI world, Boyarsky realizes that a system like the one he described “… quickly becomes very impractical. So you'd have to have something that's that robust, and I don't even know how you'd test it.”

In the same interview, Josh Sawyer, a senior developer at Obsidian, says that he doesn't know of any team using generative AI at Obsidian. Game File followed up with Obsidian PR confirming that “we do not use [gen AI] at all.”

This is heartening to read, especially given the recent comments and events in the industry. For example, Nexon boss Lee Jeong-heon recently said that we should assume all companies use AI (although many developers have disputed this), and Krafton is offering voluntary layoffs to employees who don't want to accept that the company is now “AI first.”

The use of AI appears to be widespread in Korea and Japan, as Level 5 head Akihiro Hino also predicted a widespread adoption of AI in Japan's domestic gaming industry.

The Outer Worlds 2 was received mostly positively by players and critics. The space RPG has an average critic rating of 83 on OpenCritic and a 'Mostly Positive' rating on Steam. It is widely regarded as a great improvement over the original, although some critics disapprove of Obsidian's core gameplay loop, i.e. get quest, go to marker, kill enemies, return to quest giver.

Outer Worlds 2 is currently available on PC and Xbox Series X/S.