„Gen Z loves AI slop.” Ex-Square Enix CEO believes the huge success of ARC Raiders is the best proof of that

A lot of players aren't fans of these solutions because they don't make games cheaper; they just make them worse. On the other hand, executives are absorbed with dreams of AI reducing development costs. The latest example of this second category is Jacob Navok, who’s best known for leading Square Enix's business division for five years. Now, he's the head of Genvid Technologies.

1. In a post on X, he stated that players complaining about the use of gen AI are a minority – the majority of consumers have no issue with it. To back up his point, Navok mentions the success of ARC Raiders.
2. Navok believes that players from Gen Z and younger fully embrace generative AI, as demonstrated by the success of the Steal a Brainrot module available in Roblox, which is filled with characters from poorly created AI designs. As he said:

Jacob Navok adds that, to his knowledge, AI is already widely used in the industry. Even if a developer isn't using it to create audiovisual stuff, at least some of the game code is made with this tech, especially the Claude model.

Navok admits that independent devs are an exception, as they often tend to avoid even writing code using AI. He also believes that some people don't behave rationally, as they have no issue with code generated using Claude, but protest against images and sounds created by artificial intelligence.

According to Jacob Navok, the success of ARC Raiders and the use of gen AI by Activision mean that the dam has already been broken, and nothing will stop the increasingly widespread use of generative artificial intelligence in the gaming industry.

ARC Raiders

October 30, 2025

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• scandals and controversies
• AI / Artificial Intelligence