Larian's big Q&A session on how it's using AI to help make its next game is happening tomorrow on Reddit
Following what you might call a sub-optimal response to its apparent enthusiasm for the use of AI in game development, Larian boss Swen Vincke promised an AMA in January to clarify where exactly the studio stands on the matter. A message on X has now nailed that little online tête-à-tête down to 5 am PT/8 am ET/2 pm CET on January 9, on Reddit.
That's pretty early, at least in my part of the world, but bear in mind that Larian is not based in my part of the world but in Ghent, Belgium, where the whole thing can go down after a nice extended lunch.
If you're wondering what this is all about, a quick refresher: Larian unveiled Divinity, its next game, at The Game Awards 2025 with a shockingly dark, brutal trailer that reminded us all that Baldur's Gate 3 got rolling the same way before all the, y'know, sex.
But the studio's big moment went awry just days later when Vincke said in a Bloomberg interview that Larian was experimenting with generative AI in the early stages of game development, and that developers at the studio were happy about it.
This did not go over well with a significant portion of Larian's fan base, and suddenly Good Guy Swen was being portrayed as just another over-monied game executive looking to cut headcounts to the bone.
Vincke had previously expressed some cautiously positive thoughts about AI, saying in April 2024 for instance that AI "is a tool that we use to help us do things faster." He was more specific on the topic a year later, when he said developers at Larian used AI for the "automation of tasks that nobody wants to do. The obvious things, like motion capture cleaning, or voice editing."
But, perhaps because they didn't come in the wake of a major game reveal, those comments went relatively unnoticed and didn't cause nearly the stir the post-Game Awards interview did. Vincke tried to smooth the waters with a strategic F-bomb deployment on X, but rather than getting caught up in extended beefing he quickly announced the AMA, promising to be fully transparent on how exactly Larian does and does not use AI.
You can't put too much stock into what anyone says on social media, and particularly X, but the responses to the AMA timing announcement are interesting. Questions about generative AI in Larian's development processes are largely absent—instead, people are asking about Divinity itself: Whether it will feature turn-based or RTWP combat, how it will relative to the rest of the series, whether it will have cinematic cutscenes on the scale of Baldur's Gate 3, and of course how much "romance" there will be.
The odds of any of those questions being satisfactorily answered are pretty much nil, but hey, shoot your shot, I guess. To see what Larian actually is willing to talk about at this point, head over to the r/Games subreddit at the appointed hour—that is, 5 am PT/8 am ET/2 pm CET—tomorrow.