As Steam early access sensation Far Far West sells over 1 million copies in three weeks, publisher Fireshine Games rejects generative AI

But some AI tools are allowed.

Far Far West - a sci-fi fantasy co-op shooter that launched on 28th April - is off to a fantastic early access start on Steam, and its publisher is now making it very clear it's not interested in working with developers that use generative AI tools.

Yesterday, it was revealed the game had already crossed the 1m units mark despite being limited to Steam and far from a 1.0 release. It's a remarkable start for a game that isn't a live-service offering and keeps things simple, and it appears developer Evil Raptor is only getting started.

Meanwhile, Fireshine Games (publisher) CEO Brian Foote has revealed during an interview with GamesIndustry.biz the company doesn't "work with partners that are relying on generative AI or generative art". In fact, it appears the publisher's approach is close to Hooded Horse's very open stance on gen-AI. "I think that's the red line we are very clear on," he added.

Foote, however, is well aware of the realities of game development and software these days, and clarified there's a bit of a grey area: "If AI means code completion or means using Copilot in Word, that's an entirely different set of scenarios... It will be very hard for anybody to say they're not touching AI in some way, shape or form, but in terms of the core game creation, that is not something that we think players are interested in at this point in time, and not something that we think is healthy for the development community."

Elsewhere, use of generative AI and AI tools for game development is all over the place. From the aforementioned rejections to Amazon trying (and failing) to go all in, we're getting news and statements regarding the use of gen-AI assets and AI-assisted "preliminary work" almost every day now.