Recreate Games has apologised after an AI-focused video contest for its popular casual brawler Party Animals drew significant community criticism, insisting it was “not trying to dismiss handmade work or disrespect creators”.

Earlier this week, Recreate announced what it called Party Animals’ first AI video contest, with a prize pool of $75k. It was seeking submissions of “short films, drama series, music videos, animations, and more”, stipulating all entries must be under five minutes and that AI-generated content must be the “core creative tool”. It added, “In the past, ideas like these could only exist in your head. Now, with AI, they finally have a chance to become reality.”

However, even a cursory look at the 3.7K responses Recreate’s social media announcement generated is enough to see the Party Animals community was less than enthused. “The fact that you have $75,000 to give away and you’re going to give it to someone who uses gen AI instead of an actual artist is actually mind boggling,” wrote one poster.

Another commenter was quick to highlight the “f**king irony” that Recreate’s competition terms and conditions included a line that “any plagiarism or unauthorised use of others’ work will result in disqualification.” Similarly, another response noted the “irony of posting animal facts for environmental awareness and then hosting a contest that utilises a technology actively harming it.”

A few commenters offered their support, however, with one insisting, “AI art is art, and it’s important, and helping a lot of people.”

Ultimately, though, the overwhelmingly negative community response has been significant enough that Recreate has now issued an apology. “We’re sorry for upsetting players with this event,” it wrote in a follow-up post on social media. “We’re also sorry that we didn’t communicate with everyone clearly enough before the event started.”

It went on to insist its original goal with the contest was to “lower the barrier to creation”. This, it added, was inspired by previous competitions, where it had seen “players with great ideas and scripts who couldn’t fully bring them to life because they weren’t familiar with tools like editing, modeling, or animation software. We hoped AI could be a more accessible tool that lets more people take part.”

“That said, we understand the concerns around AI content,” it continued. “We are not trying to dismiss handmade work or disrespect creators. To us, AI is just another tool. What we truly care about is the idea, the expression, and the final work.”

Recreate has now invited the Party Animals community to vote whether it should cancel the AI video contest outright, change it to a non-AI creation competition, or keep the AI category and add a separate handmade category. However, the fact the studio is even considering the third option has created further consternation. As one commenter put it, “Rather than take in what people actually said to you about using AI, you decide to leave it up to the ‘community’ and still include an option to use AI.”

Generative AI, of course, continues to be hugely controversial both within the games industry and without, thanks to a multitude of concerns ranging from the ethical to the environmental. Some publishers and studios are embracing AI (as we revealed this week, Amazon reportedly attempted to make an AI game with disastrous results) while others are taking a more cautious approach. Voice actors have been particularly outspoken about the technology, seeking safeguards and guarantees around its use.

Additionally, the huge quantities of RAM and other components needed to support big tech’s race to build more datacentres is now causing strife for the consumer electronics industry at large. Steam Decks are in increasingly short supply, Steam Machines are impacted, Sony is said to be mulling a PS6 delay, and Nintendo recently announced a Switch 2 price increase, in part due to AI.