AI-generated video game music is on the rise — and dividing the industry

Full text

Like it or loathe it—and for the record, I am firmly in the latter camp–generative AI has continued to seep into every aspect of game development. What felt like the odd shovelware AI thumbnail here or generated texture there has transformed into "developers" parading around entirely vibe-coded videogames as if it's something to be celebrated, rather than looked upon with sheer horror at the willing dismantling of human creativity and spirit.

Critical Hit

(Image credit: Future) Welcome to Critical Hit , where I (or someone else on the PC Gamer team) celebrate and lament all things videogame music, audio design, and the ways our favourite games make our ears tingle.

While videogame music has still largely held off from falling to generative AI, that doesn't mean it's not happening. YouTube has already become plagued with so-called "rearrangements" of beloved videogame scores that are, unsurprisingly, concocted entirely by a LLM. Spotify has been under intense scrutiny for the immense flooding of AI music across the platform—as well as fielding accusations that it's been planting AI-generated music it owns in its official playlists as a way to pay real artists less money.

I'll have a little more on that in a future column, but right now I want to know where you stand on it. Would knowing a game you're playing has AI-generated music change your opinion on it? Is it something you would even notice in the first place? Or does it simply not bother you, as long as you're enjoying playing the game?

As someone who has been shaped (and continues to be shaped) by videogame music, something that makes me love it so much is knowing the composer's intention behind every melody, instrument, every layer that might peel away or add on to adapt to the situation you're facing in-game. That kind of nuance you simply do not get from something pieced together by a computer, which is simply scanning and regurgitating whatever it's collected elsewhere.

For me, any generative AI ultimately cheapens a product. But when music is something I hold so dearly to me, surrendering that art to something artificial sounds like my absolute worst nightmare. But hey, maybe you feel differently. So make sure to drop a comment and let me know where you stand on this issue.