Accused of using AI in World of Warcraft: Forever videos, Blizzard employee says "hell nah" – we have "real team members"

On the journey to the big World of Warcraft: Forever release next month, Blizzard has been working hard on social media advertisements for the new MMO – advertisements it assures fans do not contain any generative AI content.

The company's digital marketing manager confirms as much on X, explaining that they've seen some of the controversy the WoW: Forever ads have sparked online, with allegations of gen AI use – but it's all unfounded.

"Not seeing much discourse here on X, but there have been comments on whether or not we use AI in these videos," they write. "That's a big hell nah." Why would they, when they have real creatives at hand?

As they put it, "We have real team members writing scripts, getting and editing footage, and I've been in recording booths with our VO actors every week."

They're not alone in assuring the community of it, either. World of Warcraft's social media manager chimes in with his own post, stating, "To add, we don't use AI on ANY social content we make. Big hell nah indeed." And, honestly, that's great news, to say the least.

It's a bit of a strange time right now in the game development scene and elsewhere, with many suddenly announcing their support of gen AI amid widespread layoffs.

Epic Games immediately springs to mind, having unveiled a new "vibe coded" version of its launcher just yesterday while company CEO Tim Sweeney spoke on a "huge pivot" at the studio toward "maximum AI acceleration" – so, yeah.

I, for one, am pleased to learn that other developers and publishers – like Blizzard here – are shying away from the controversial tech and opting to support their own creative staff, even if it's for something as simple as social media advertisements.

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