Activision are advertising new games to Facebook and Instagram in the Guitar Hero and Call of Duty franchises. The catch, though, is these posts are made with AI images for games that don’t exist. If you are scrolling on either of the social media sites today, you may come across a sponsored post showing Guitar Hero Mobile or on the shooter side, Call of Duty: Zombie Defender or Call of Duty: Sniper. None of these games exist, and if you follow the links included, they lead to surveys asking if you would like to see them made.
What AI games are Activision advertising?
Just to put it out there, this is a gross practice. For starters, it’s very obvious that these images are completely made by AI. The Guitar Hero Mobile image features a band of four guitarists, and a drum set with no drummer. The speakers on stage are warped and even the symbols to play the notes in the “game” are completely wrong in their color scheme and modeling.
The Call of Duty: Sniper image features someone sniping an enemy down a scope from about 20 feet away, and they look like they are a friendly soldier. The Zombie Defender images look like any other cheap money grab game you can find on a mobile app store.
It’s been very obvious that the multi-billion-dollar company is utilizing generative AI more recently. In Black Ops 6, it is confirmed that art assets are being made with AI, including an infamous six-fingered Santa zombie from a Christmas event. Activision advertising games that don’t even exist takes this even further. Even if the development teams put hard work into making them, these ads have no way to show what the games would actually be. AI in gaming is obviously here for the long haul, but this is another example of a bad faith process that should instantly be shot down.
