Obsidian Entertainment veteran Leonard Boyarsky once theorised on a podcast in 2019 that artificial intelligence could be a game-changer for increasing the amount of depth in a dialogue tree between a player and a non-player character.
“The computer could just run with it, and the player could literally say—and not even have a list of things to pick from—but actually say what their responses are and have the computer respond in real-time,” Boyarsky speculated.
In a recent interview with Game File, Boyarsky expressed regret at making those comments. “That was literally just me doing a thought experiment,” he explained, saying he was tempted to smack his past-self “upside the head” for his naïveté.
Obsidian Doesn’t Use Any AI
In a post-AI world, Boyarsky realises that a system like the one he described “…quickly gets very unwieldy. So, like, you would have to have something that was so robust, and I don’t even know how you would test it.”
In the same interview, Josh Sawyer, a veteran developer at Obsidian, says he’s unaware of any team using generative AI at Obsidian. Game File followed up with Obsidian’s PR, who confirmed that “we haven’t been using [gen AI] at all.”
This is heartening to read, especially considering recent comments and happenings in the industry. For instance, Nexon’s head Lee Jeong-heon recently said that we should assume all companies are using AI (though many developers then disputed this), and Krafton is offering voluntary redundancies for employees who don’t want to accept that the company is now “AI first.”
The use of AI seems to be widespread across Korea and Japan, as Level-5 head Akihiro Hino has also predicted a widespread takeover of AI in Japan’s domestic gaming industry.
The Outer Worlds 2 has been received largely positively by players and critics. The space-faring RPG holds an average critic score of 83 on OpenCritic and a ‘Mostly Positive’ review score on Steam. It’s widely considered a big improvement over the original, though some critics don’t approve of Obsidian’s core gameplay loop, i.e. obtain quest, go to marker, kill enemies, return to quest giver.
The Outer Worlds 2 is currently available on PC and Xbox Series X/S.
The Outer Worlds 2
- Released
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October 29, 2025
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Intense Violence, Blood and Gore, Strong Language
