Former Dragon Age Writer Criticizes EA’s Push for AI

EA is one of several gaming companies interested in generative AI, and CEO Andrew Wilson is says EA developers have a “hunger” to use it in game development. However, former Dragon Age lead writer David Gaider is less than enthusiastic, harshly criticizing the EA executive.

Dragon Age: Inquisition lead writer David Gaider has harsh words for EA

“In case it’s unclear,” Gaider wrote on Twitter, ‘hunger’ referred to here is the allure of a spreadsheet where the labour costs suddenly show as a teeny tiny bar compared to the other bars and a bunch of executives around a table nod and repeat ‘ROI’ and ‘good, yes, good’ over and over again.”

Gaider worked for EA subsidiary BioWare from 1999 to 2016 and thus has some experience with EA. His last project at BioWare was the doomed live-service game Anthem, though the story was rebooted after he left. He sees EA’s push for AI as a repeat of its live service mandate, which contributed to Anthem’s failure. He also argued that people shouldn’t believe EA when it says developers are excited about AI.

“They want you to believe the devs under them are super stoked to work generative AI into their processes,” said Gaider, “but I assure you what they took as excitement was really a veiled wail of despair not unlike the time that team was informed of their new ‘really cool’ live service mandate.”

“The execs heard about the New Thing™,” he continued in another tweet, “and everyone (meaning all the Yes Men they’ve mentioned it to) think it’s super exciting, so now they’re going to parrot it at the folks doing the actual work . . . at least until reality inevitably manifests.”

This is not the first time EA’s CEO has gushed about the potential of AI. In March, he predicted that generative AI would allow EA’s studios to do in days what used to take months. The executive also described a future where billions of players create their own content with the company’s AI technology.