Ubisoft touches up AI art 'placeholder' that slipped into Anno 117, but fans are not happy it was there to begin with: 'Of all the video games, not Anno'

Ubisoft has been caught with its hand in the generative AI jar again, continuing a multi-year streak of formal insistence by the publishing giant that AI and game development are destined to be together. Anno 117: Pax Romana is the first Ubisoft game to appear on Steam with an AI content disclosure, though the statement notes "the final product reflects our team’s craft and creative vision." It seems that vision includes some pretty janky background characters with nubs for hands, as players are spotting on Reddit.

In the above thread posted by user MedicaeVal, there's an imgur gallery where you can see some dubious, muddy-looking figures in one of the game's illustrations. Kotaku shared another imgur gallery featuring artwork where some Roman senators can be seen with similarly uncanny looks—one of them lacks a head, for example.

That same Kotaku story shares a quote from Ubisoft explaining that first image and proposing a fix: "This image was a placeholder asset that unintentionally slipped through our review process. The final image is attached here and will replace the current version of this artwork with the upcoming 1.3 patch." The statement also notes that because Anno 117 is the studio's "most ambitious Anno yet," AI tools were merely a complement to "the largest team of artists ever for the franchise."

Here's the new image Kotaku shared:

While the new image looks a bit better, I'd say the use of the term "placeholder" is questionable when the final product is very nearly the same. It calls into question how much of the artwork is AI in the first place; after all, the fix here seems to have just been to paint over the AI asset where it was ugliest.

It's proving troublesome for fans. On the aforementioned Reddit thread, user AlcoreRain commented, "Your post is the reason I won't buy the game for now. It shows that they have used AI as base for the art, and this picture is just not on the same level as 1800. If they are going to go with cheap tools in their game, I will wait 'til the game is cheap." Another reply from taytay_1989 reads, "Of all of the video games, not Anno!! What drew me to Anno 1800 was its gorgeous artworks."

This issue has permeated other areas of the game too, with players on social media expressing concerns that certain language localizations are allegedly AI-generated. It's a particular shame with Pax Romana because, in some respects, it's one of the better city builders in recent memory. AI is also an increasingly ubiquitous gamedev tool these days: It's getting harder and harder to spot when the handcrafted stuff ends and the AI insertions begin.