Activision has issued an announcement in response to participant outcry concerning the seeming use of generative AI artwork belongings in a variety of areas of Name of Responsibility: Black Ops 7.
Gamers have been taking to social media immediately to complain about photographs they consider to be AI-generated throughout the sport, primarily specializing in calling card photographs that they declare seem to make use of Studio Ghibli styling, following a development of AI-Ghibli photographs from earlier this 12 months.
I havent actually regarded on the Multiplayer and Zombie calling playing cards as intently and im prepared to wager they’re utilizing ai on these too however its solely the Marketing campaign and endgame calling playing cards which are this kind of blatant Sora/Grok artstyle pic.twitter.com/5qmEXhoQkJ
— Kume (@Kumesicles) November 14, 2025
In response to this outcry, Activision has issued an announcement to a variety of retailers, together with PC Gamer, that acknowledges the difficulty…kind of: “Like so many all over the world, we use quite a lot of digital instruments, together with AI instruments, to empower and assist our groups to create one of the best gaming experiences doable for our gamers. Our artistic course of continues to be led by the proficient people in our studios.”
It is price stating that the Name of Responsibility: Black Ops 7 Steam web page additionally contains the next disclaimer: “Our workforce makes use of generative AI instruments to assist develop some in sport belongings.” Not precisely descriptive!
This is not the primary time Name of Responsibility has come beneath fireplace for this, both. This precise situation performed out again in February, when Activision admitted that it had used generative AI within the growth of Black Ops 6, together with in a zombie Santa loading display that offended followers known as “AI slop.”
Then, simply this previous August, Black Ops 7 affiliate artistic director Miles Leslie clarified the workforce’s stance on the know-how additional:
“We reside in a world now, the place there are AI instruments. I believe our official assertion we stated final 12 months, round Black Ops 6, is that every thing that goes into the sport is touched by the workforce 100%. Now we have generative AI instruments to assist us, however none of that goes in-game.
“After which you are going to say, ‘Yeah, nevertheless it has.’ I am going to say it has accidentally. And that was by no means the intention. We have come out and been very clear that we use these as instruments to assist the workforce, however they don’t substitute any of the implausible workforce members now we have which are doing the ultimate touches and constructing that content material to place it within the sport.
“So every thing you play: human-created and touched. AI instruments on the earth we reside in: it is how can we streamline it? That is actually the aim. Not substitute, however streamline.”
In response, IGN requested why the zombie Santa and different generative AI photographs hadn’t been faraway from the sport but, to which Leslie stated that was not his division, and that “the workforce is actively taking a look at that stuff.” It’s unclear if, why, or how Activision’s stance on this has modified over time.
Name of Responsibility: Black Ops 7 is out now. We have given the marketing campaign a attempt to aren’t completely loopy about it, with our reviewer saying it is ” a wild one due to the scope of its ambition, however the huge swings it takes do not all the time land, leaving it an uneven step down from final 12 months.”
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You will discover her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Acquired a narrative tip? Ship it to rvalentine@ign.com.
