Kingdom Come 2 director declares 'AI is here to stay' amid industry backlash

AI in game development continues to be a controversial topic in the industry, but some creative leads are taking a firm stance on it - including the creative director of Kingdom Come Deliverance II.

Daniel Vávra took to X on Wednesday by retweeting a clip from the upcoming a fan-generated video depicting a ‘live-action’ version of the intro to The Way of Kings novel by Brandon Sanderson. The original tweet declares ‘RIP Hollywood’ as the latest Kling 3.0 video generation model from Artlist.io appears to be more photorealistic than ever.

In a retweet of the video, Vávra claims that although ‘everybody hates AI… it’s an unavoidable future’.

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“This is [a] fan-made trailer. Made in two days. By one person. [The] movie (and gaming) industry will never be the same,” he says before going on to claim that AI is ‘here and it’s not going anywhere’.

This isn’t the first time that Vávra has praised how he thinks AI can be a force for good in creative industries. Back when Larian Studios was under fire for admitting to using generative AI in the concept stage of Divinity, he also tweeted in favour of using the technology to ‘realise ideas faster’.

“If AI can help me make an epic game in a year with a smaller team like in the old days, I'm all for it. That game will still have an art director, writers, programmers, graphic designers, but they won't have to do the tiresome and boring tasks, they'll have to focus on the essentials,” he said at the time.

According to the studio lead, the voice actor for protagonist Henry, Tom McKay, spent ‘500 hours’ in the studio recording generic voice lines for the character. This, as well as time spent doing other ‘boring’ tasks in video game development, is what Vávra reckons the tool can be used to speed up.

A recent survey from the Games Development Conference showed that 36% of game developers were using generative AI in some way in 2025. However, only 13% of those surveyed felt like using the AI tools were actually having a positive impact on development, while 30% even said it was making things worse.

Other high-profile studios and publishers are also exploring use of the technology. Although Take-Two’s CEO confirmed that no generative AI was used to create GTA 6, it’s being explored elsewhere in the company.

“We're already seeing instances where generative AI tools are driving costs and time efficiencies,” Strauss Zelnick said. However, he also caveated that by clarifying that ‘[AI] tools don’t replace creativity’.

Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 launched to critical acclaim last year with it achieving an impressive 89 on Metacritic. It’s thought to have come very close to earning a Game of the Year award, pipped only by Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

Although much of the game was handcrafted - and better for it, I might add - Vávra has admitted that a few elements like low-resolution textures were upscaled using Topaz Labs from the original game.