Months after it got caught with AI art in Crimson Desert, Pearl Abyss told investors it's expanding AI across everything it makes. Oh, and DokeV, first meant for 2023, is now a 2028 game.
Pearl Abyss says it's expanding AI use "throughout our entire development pipeline".
It's using AI to test design ideas before building them, plus automation, content support and testing.
The studio insists core gameplay and content are still made by humans.
It already had to patch AI-made art out of Crimson Desert earlier this year.
DokeV now targets the second half of 2028, and Crimson Desert hits Switch 2 in the first half of 2027.
Pearl Abyss has had a cracking year off Crimson Desert, and it’s decided the best way to spend it is more AI. In its third-quarter earnings letter, the Korean studio says it’s expanding AI “throughout our entire development pipeline”.
This is the same mob that got caught with AI-generated 2D props in Crimson Desert back in February. It also confirmed DokeV, the bright creature-collector it showed off in 2021, is now aiming for the second half of 2028.
When Crimson Desert launched, players spotted in-game images that looked suspiciously prompted. Pearl Abyss admitted some “2D visual props” were made with AI tools early in development, said they were meant to be replaced, and patched them out.
PC Gamer points out the studio also admitted it hadn’t clearly disclosed its AI use at the time. So at least this time it’s saying the quiet part in an investor letter, before anyone has to find it in a texture.
Inven Global’s write-up says Pearl Abyss is also using AI to test DokeV ideas before full development, while the fun and the gameplay are handled by the dev team. DokeV was originally meant to be out in 2023, so it’s now about five years late.
Crimson Desert Enhanced is 119.95 NZ dollars on Steam in New Zealand at the time of writing, and the first DLC landed on 30 October. Nothing about the AI push changes the game you already own.
It does tell you how the next Pearl Abyss games will be made. If you care about that, it’s worth knowing before DokeV pre-orders open.
Using AI to prototype ideas and run tests isn’t the end of the world. Plenty of studios already do it quietly, and nobody is mourning the poor sod who used to click through QA checklists.
But “content creation support” is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that letter, and Pearl Abyss has already been caught shipping AI art it swore was temporary. Trust gets earned, and this lot are still in the red on that one.
At least they said it out loud this time, unlike the Big Walk mess, and it’s a long way from the genuinely decent use in CD Projekt’s Polish Geralt fix. Follow the fallout on our Crimson Desert page, and tell us where your AI line is in the GetRekt Discord.
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