Tomb Raider Developer Clarifies No AI Involvement in Lara’s Outfit Design, Sparking Further Curiosity

Earlier this week, we saw fans reacting to the latest update for the Tomb Raider I-III Remastered collection, which introduced a new Challenge Mode and a bunch of new outfits for Lara. The response? Let’s just say it was overwhelmingly negative. The outfits were so poorly received that one of the original artists from the remaster took to social media to clarify that he and his team had no part in the cringe-worthy designs. Speculation arose that generative AI might have been involved in creating these outfits, given their low quality. In response, Aspyr has stepped in to assert that no AI was used, claiming the designs came solely from their team of artists, which only raises more questions.

In a delayed response on social media, Aspyr acknowledged the feedback regarding the Challenge Mode update, stating, “Our top priority is the delivery of a patch that will fix the texture issues and technical bugs.”

It turns out that the Challenge Mode not only brought those unfortunate outfits but also introduced a slew of new bugs and glitches. Aspyr added, “In addition, a series of updates are on the way to address a variety of technical issues across all platforms.”

While it’s good to see that they’re planning to address these issues, it must be frustrating for Aspyr, especially since the update was free. However, players have still paid for the game, and many likely expected better quality content. The situation becomes even more puzzling when Aspyr seems to deflect blame onto its own artists while emphasizing that generative AI was not involved.

“This is also an opportunity to correct some mistaken information,” the statement continued. “The outfits in the update were created by our team of artists; no AI-generated assets were used in the update.”

While it’s understandable that the studio wants to clarify its stance on AI usage, it doesn’t really explain how the outfits ended up in such a poor state. The core issue remains: how did these designs make it into the game like this?

Sure, it might seem trivial to get worked up over some cosmetic options for a video game character, especially since no one paid extra for them. But it’s still intriguing to consider how something like this could happen, especially with the promotional push that accompanied the update. As pointed out by YouTuber RUUs Room, the preview images for the new content were drastically different from what players actually received, raising the question of whether Aspyr was aware of this discrepancy before the update went live. So why go ahead with the release? It’s a question that deserves an answer. We’ve reached out to Aspyr again for clarification, but our previous inquiries went unanswered.