Halo: Campaign Evolved leads call AI "a tool in a toolbox" comparable to others like Photoshop, but assure "the people are the ones who are creating the game"

The exciting remake of beloved 2001 sci-fi shooter Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo: Campaign Evolved, has been unveiled – and considering today's climate of rising generative AI use, it's unsurprising that some fans may worry about its role within the new release's development.

Executive producer Damon Conn addresses such concerns in a recent interview with Rolling Stone – and it does sound like AI could play a part in the production of Campaign Evolved, albeit a minor one in support of the developers actually putting in the creative work. "I want to be very clear… People are creative. People make games. AI can improve workflows. It can do things for the game," explains Conn.

"But I want to be very specific and clear that the people are the ones who are creating the game, and [if] there's an opportunity to improve a workflow, or something along those lines, we'll look at it again. It really should be additive to the creation of a game." Game director Greg Hermann echoes this sentiment, chiming in to describe AI as "a tool" much like Adobe Photoshop. "It's a tool in a toolbox," he states.

"I may go a little off message here, but some of that gets very challenging when we look at how integrated AI is becoming within our tooling," Hermann continues. "We use Photoshop. There's generative fill, for example. The boundary lines can get a little fuzzy. I will say, though, again, to Damon's point, it really is about that creative spark that comes from people and improving just overall workflows."

Rolling Stone clarifies that later on, an Xbox Game Studios representative reached out with more context, writing, "There is no mandate to use generative AI in our game development, and that includes Halo: Campaign Evolved." It all certainly begs the question – how much AI does Campaign Evolved utilize, then, and how? It seems we won't know for certain until the remake actually releases sometime in 2026.

The Halo leads aren't the only folks working within the video game industry to speak on the matter of AI use during development. Arc Raiders lead Patrick Söderlund said that games "can't be built by an AI" and "I hope they never can."

OG Halo: CE dev says the remake's changes are "like the dance remix of a classic song that skips the intro and the bridge and just thumps the chorus over and over"