Baldurs Gate Publishing Director Pushes Back At Square Enixs AI QA Plans

Earlier this week, Square Enix disclosed its ambition to drastically cut its Quality Assurance employees and use generative AI to handle 70% of its game QA and debugging. The company went on to note that it wants to "establish a competitive advantage in game development." However, Michael Douse--the publishing director of Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian--has called out Square Enix and described its plan as "stupid."

"So QA are some of the most video games engaged people in any company," Douse wrote on X. "They are integral to your community teams. To publishing. They give you the real feedback. They know what is good and what is bad before the audience does, and they are the most resilient department."

"[The] idea that QA people can be replaced at a large scale is stupid because it supposes that the conversations with them can be replaced and they can't," added Douse. "They are a massively advantageous vibe check."