A $60 game just got caught hiding AI art — and broke Steam's rules
Crimson Desert sold 2 million copies in 24 hours. Then players found AI-generated paintings hiding in every manor — and the studio had never disclosed it.
Crimson Desert — the highly anticipated open-world RPG from Pearl Abyss (the studio behind Black Desert Online) — sold 2 million copies in its first 24 hours. It scored a 78 on Metacritic. Then players started looking at the paintings on the walls.
What they found has ignited one of the biggest AI art controversies in gaming history.
Horses with five legs and knights melting into rocks
Within days of the March 19 launch, players on Reddit began flagging in-game paintings that looked unmistakably AI-generated. The evidence was hard to miss: horses with five legs, knights whose bodies merged into the landscape, figures with three fingers on one hand and four on the other, and clothing folds that defied physics.
One of the most obvious examples hangs over a staircase in Oakenshield Manor — a supposed battle scene where centaur-like abominations replace cavalry, and people on the ground seem to morph into the rocks beneath them. Reddit user Ok-Error-403 catalogued the telltale signs: inconsistent linocut (woodcut-style) strokes, impossible anatomy, and the general "smear" quality of early AI image generators.
Reporters at The Gamer spent over 150 hours in the game and found suspicious artwork across multiple locations — from Oakenshield Manor in Hernand to Marni's House in Deleysia — suggesting the problem is widespread, not isolated.
Pearl Abyss apologized — but only after players caught them
After the backlash went viral, Pearl Abyss issued a formal apology. The studio admitted it used "experimental AI generative tools" during early development to "rapidly explore tone and atmosphere." These were supposed to be temporary placeholders, replaced with hand-crafted art before launch.
Pearl Abyss's key statement: "We should have clearly disclosed our use of AI. Following reports from our community, we have identified that some of these assets were unintentionally included. This is not in line with our internal standards."
The studio committed to a comprehensive audit of all in-game assets and promised replacements through upcoming patches. They also updated the game's Steam page to add an AI disclosure — something they should have done from the start.
Steam's disclosure policy was violated
Since early 2024, Steam has required all publishers to disclose any use of generative AI (tools that create content like images, text, or voice using machine learning) on their store pages. Crimson Desert launched with no such disclosure.
This is a significant policy violation. Steam's rules exist specifically to let buyers know what they're paying for — and Pearl Abyss sold 2 million copies before anyone realized the game's manor walls were decorated with machine-generated art that looked like it came from the early days of DALL-E.
Why gamers are this angry
This isn't just about a few ugly paintings. The backlash reflects a deeper anxiety in the gaming community:
For players: If a studio charges $60 for a game and can't be bothered to hand-paint background art, what else did they cut corners on?
For artists: Every AI-generated asset in a AAA game is a painting that a human artist wasn't paid to create.
For the industry: If studios use AI art as "placeholders" that accidentally ship, how many other games have done the same without getting caught?
This isn't the first time a studio has been caught either. Kotaku reported that Sandfall Interactive and Embark Studios faced similar backlash for unreplaced AI placeholder content.
What happens next
Pearl Abyss says replacement art is coming in future patches, but the damage is done. The Crimson Desert subreddit has been flooded with posts cataloguing every suspicious painting, and the controversy has made headlines across Engadget, Kotaku, PCGamesN, and Creative Bloq.
If you're a game developer, designer, or content creator — take note. The audience can tell. AI-generated art has a visual fingerprint that trained eyes spot instantly, and undisclosed use is now a reputational and legal risk.
If you've bought Crimson Desert, you can check for yourself: visit Oakenshield Manor in the southwest part of the first town and look at the paintings above the staircase. You'll see exactly what 2 million players are angry about.
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