CD Projekt Red CEO warns that AI-generated games are coming

The use of AI in video games has been a hotly debated topic this year. Everyone seems to have a strong opinion on the matter, and the video game industry seems to be trudging forward without any care. Michał Nowakowski, joint CEO of CD Projekt Red, said this week that fully AI-generated games are coming, and he knows it for a fact because he's already been in the room with the people building them.

Speaking to Edge's Knowledge newsletter, Nowakowski recalled a conversation with the founder of a primarily AI-based studio:

"I can have 40 prototypes within a week, two weeks from now I can have five games that I chose are going to be the best and, three weeks from now, I'm actually launching a game."

Nowakowski was not particularly thrilled with the idea, even though he saw its plausibility. He added that he still has some doubts about whether this is really the path to follow. He didn't spell out exactly what his reservations are, but the context makes it fairly clear. Flooding the market with AI-generated products doesn't seem like a winning formula to him, and it's hard to argue otherwise.

Coming from the studio behind The Witcher franchise and Cyberpunk 2077, the skepticism carries some weight. CDPR has built its reputation on handcrafted worlds, dense writing, and years-long production cycles. That's the opposite end of the spectrum from a 3-week turnaround.

The current industry picture is quite messy when it comes to AI adoption. Google's Jack Buser recently claimed that roughly 9 out of 10 game developers are already using AI-powered tools, based on an internal survey. Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney has gone further, arguing that AI integration will become so universal that disclosure requirements are pointless.

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Meanwhile, Crystal Dynamics added an AI disclaimer directly to the Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis Steam page after backlash, stating that AI tools were used for early exploration content, but all final assets were human-crafted. Pearl Abyss, the studio behind Crimson Desert, was forced to apologize for AI-generated artwork. The community's response to both situations was not warm.

Moreover, Sony's recently filed 2026 annual business strategy report tells its own story. The company has added a brand-new section dedicated to AI, framing it as a way to "unleash the creativity of studios," while simultaneously scrubbing any mention of PC ports from the document. Sony has also previously admitted that it used AI-assisted tools in some projects.

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For players, the near-term risk of fully AI-generated games isn't exactly huge. Studios like CDPR aren't going anywhere, but the real concern is platform saturation. Steam already struggles with discoverability, and if studios can ship 5 games in 3 weeks, that problem gets significantly worse, and genuinely good games get buried under a mountain of "AI slop" content.

Whether these new AI-generated game studios find commercial success or burn out on volume remains to be seen. I suspect a lot of fingers will be crossed on the latter.