Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, the former CD Projekt Red mastermind behind gems like Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3, who is now leading The Blood of Dawnwalker, hails superhero gem Dispatch as his personal game of the year pick for 2025.
Speaking in a recent interview with Eurogamer, Tomaszkiewicz first discusses AI – a topic we can all agree has been especially hot within the industry as of late. While he concludes he's "not totally against AI," he says "it needs to evolve to the place where it will be the tool which helps us, like Google Translate, not something which steals the author rights and creates the graphics or the animations because it learns from the creations of people."
That's where Dispatch, the hilarious player choice-based adventure about a dysfunctional set of superheroes, comes in. Tomaszkiewicz explains, "I finished Dispatch recently, which is my game of the year. I love this game." He then adds, "And I don't believe that AI could create something like this. It's not possible." It all boils down to developers' passion – something the former Telltale talent heading Dispatch clearly demonstrates.
"You need to have people who feel, who have this creative fire, who want to prove something, who want to tell you a particular story, and create emotions in these particular moments," as Tomaszkiewicz asserts. "A machine will not understand us as much." I mean, he's certainly not wrong – and he's not the only dev to share his thoughts on AI and its role within video game production.
Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu described how he's "never used AI and probably never will" himself, as it's not rewarding. Arc Raiders lead Patrick Söderlund also spoke on the matter, stating that games "can't be built by an AI" and "I hope they never can." Motoi Okamoto, Silent Hill series producer, detailed how new Konami title Silent Hill f contains "the kind of bold choices AI would never be able to make" as well.
PUBG creator Brendan Greene similarly admitted that he, too, is "really heartened to see the community revolt against AI" online. In other words, it's quite a hot topic – and I'd personally agree with Tomaszkiewicz on his read of Dispatch. Sitting with "Overwhelmingly Positive" reviews on Steam right now, this is the sort of AA banger a machine would just… not make. Or, at least, it definitely wouldn't even be near the same quality.
Be sure to browse through our roundup of the most exciting new games coming this year and beyond for some fresh titles to wishlist.
