During the hectic round of new releases last week, including hugely anticipated titles like Silent Hill f, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, and Hades II, you’d be forgiven for not noticing the release of Hotel Barcelona, a collaborative project between Japanese cult auteurs Suda51 and Swery. Although the game released quietly in one of the biggest new release weeks of the year, it wasn’t long before fans of the cult directors noticed the distracting inclusion of generative AI content in the late-game (something I directly criticized in my review). Now, publisher CULT Games has formally responded to the backlash.
The generative AI content in question includes five watchable VHS tapes that must be viewed in order to decode a password used to unlock one of the game’s bonus stages. In their response on the game’s Steam page, CULT Games acknowledged that they failed to disclose generative AI content being featured in the game (something Steam requires of developers and publishers), and confirmed that the content will be removed in an upcoming patch. They confirmed that some of the voices used in the VHS segments were using an AI text-to-speech service, however “All AI generated voices are verified human voice actors that get paid for their work.”
They also confirmed that the Red Tree Entertainment logo had been edited and modified using Photoshop Generative AI, however claimed that none of the stock footage used was generative AI and “was purchased via a stock footage service that is explicitly anti-GenAI.” Finally, CULT Games claims that they are “opposed to any professional GenAI use that has disproportional environmental impact, takes work away from real people, or has been trained on unethical datasets.”
While it is good to see the publisher respond to a concern that has been growing greatly in the broader games industry, and was certainly a detriment to Hotel Barcelona’s otherwise sharp sense of style and artistry, their confirmation that these segments were edited by Suehiro between 2022 – early 2023 implies that there was plenty of time to either be more transparent with the content’s inclusion or replace it before launch over two years later.
Hotel Barcelona is available now for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
