Warhorse Studios opens up about AI and whether they’re working on a Lord of the Rings game

Warhorse Studios held an AMA last week on Reddit, and while it turned pretty bloody, their responses have me feeling quite optimistic about the future. Here’s what went down, in case you missed it.

Kingdom Come Deliverance developer Warhorse Studios was almost immediately inundated with questions about dismissing a translator in favor of AI in their Reddit AMA last week. They stated that they heard the participant’s concerns, and that “We do not see AI as a substitute for human work.”

They also said that “Some team members find AI useful during early stages of production. However, we do not use AI-generated content in the final game and we have no plans to change this in the future.”

One of the hosts replied directly to a question from user Very_Human_42069, who asked “Why did you fire an employee that played such a crucial part of bringing this game to the English speaking world, and why do you plan on using AI going forward?”

In response, creative director Prokop Jirsa, user name Prokop_Whs, said: “This touches on internal HR matters, so I can’t comment on any present or past employee. That would be deeply unprofessional.

What I can say is that we are currently in the process of hiring new English translators. Actual humans.”

Overall, I find the responses to be adequate, and the above one, especially, is totally understandable.

What’s more interesting is that they responded to another hot question – whether or not they were working on a Lord of the Rings RPG.

User Eledhwen1 asked: “There’s rumours about an open world Lord of the Rings game. I’d like to ask about it but probably there won’t be a response as it is disclosed information.”

To which content director Ondřej Bittner responded: “Voilá there is a response! But unfortunately not the one you hope for. We are hard at work on … something. I cannot disclose details but I can tell it is a huge, immersive RPG.”

It’s certainly not the response I and many others were hoping for, but it still got me all excited. Warhorse Studios working on another big, immersive RPG? I’m in, whatever it is. Hopefully, we won’t be stuck playing as Gollum for 70 hours or something, though.

If it is a Lord of the Rings game made by Warhorse Studios, I certainly can’t wait – it’ll be epic, right? Imagine being able to explore The Shire, Gondor, Rohan, and maybe even swing by Mordor for a quick tussle with some orcs, all without loading screens!

I’m curious, though, what do you think is on the way, Destructoid?

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Grand Theft Auto 6’s development is trudging along to release later this year, but the hotly anticipated sequel won’t be coming to PC…at least not right away.

PS5 and Xbox Series X|S will be home to GTA 6 at launch, but PC gamers are being left in the lurch, as has been the case for most previous titles that Rockstar Games has launched. And that’s by design, according to Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick.

“Rockstar always starts on console because I think with regard to a release like that you’re judged by serving the core,” Zelnick said in a new interview with Bloomberg. “Like really serving the core consumer. If your core consumer isn’t there, if they’re not served first and best, you kind of don’t hit your other consumers.”

So, PC gamers aren’t a “core” consumer in the eyes of Rockstar, apparently. But you can bet that, within a few years, GTA 6 will eventually come to PC with upgraded visuals and other buzzwords so that the game can continue to sell.

GTA 5 was released and re-released several times over, on multiple different console generations, along with a Definitive Edition that also came to PC. It’s hard not to see this for what it is: a chance to make more money with subsequent different launches, and that’s just the way it goes.

The expectations for GTA 6 are unfathomable, with Zelnick previously calling the game “the most spectacular piece of entertainment on Earth, in history.” And according to a QA analyst at Rockstar’s studio in India, it’s leading to crunch conditions to make sure the game’s development crosses the finish line.

“We never claim success before it occurs,” Zelnick said. “We have the most amazing creative teams. We not only encourage them to pursue their passions, we insist that they do it. We try to give them unlimited financial, creative human resources and then they aim to deliver perfection.”

With Nov. 19 just about six months away and a massive marketing campaign looming over the summer, Zelnick said that “our goal is to deliver to consumers something that’s never been experienced before,” when it comes to GTA 6, remarking that “being on the sidelines but pretty close to the front of the sidelines is very, very exciting and terrifying, because the expectations are so high.”

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