Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 09/10/2026Apparently being riddled with some sort of horrid flu is exactly the right brain wavelength for me to just sit down and smash out the final boss of Dark Souls III. Okay, I deserve a cup of tea now... 091
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 08/10/2026Ok yeah fuck all yer AI games EDF 5 is out on Switch 2 today. 1142
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 27/09/2026Also I didn't realise until I moved down London way that the big shopping centre in Stevenage was designed by the same architects who did a lot of these places up north. Proper PTSD wandering through there one afternoon a year or so back. Thankfully they've long since knocked it down back home. 220
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 26/09/2026Mate, you subscribed to me. That's kind of on you at this point. Not had any hate mail in a while so this was refreshing. 370
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 17/09/2026That's a wrap on this week's work over at Riot. Had a blast. Lots of fun, some great conversations (that I can't talk about), and now gotta fly all the way back to the UK. Throw a prayer to the travel gods. 0100
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 13/09/2026"Our AI upscaling is nothing like Nvidia's". Describes an architecture which is essentially how early versions of DLSS operated. Yes they're technically not the same, but I do enjoy watching companies try to avoid suffering the same heat as Nvidia despite using the same core technologies. 281
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 13/09/2026Off on another trip out to the US for work. Had originally planned to dip into Onimusha on the flight but got sent a key for SPRAWL zero and desire for early 2000s FPS is intensifying. 051
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 10/09/2026Props (and thank you) to Ben, I think this is the best introduction I've ever received in an article. 1102
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 28/08/2026The one booth where I could squeeze in time was Stage Tour - the new Guitar Hero - because @arndreth.bsky.social and @msiemonsmeier.bsky.social had become regulars at the booth playing for TWO HOURS on Wednesday (It's really good, if you loved Guitar Hero it's exactly what you want) 050
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 25/08/2026The first ever AI Summit at Gamescom Dev hosted by @conference.aiandgames.com was a huge success. Really appreciate the trust placed in us to run two tracks on AI that will appeal to the audience. Good content and people is paramount! Next stop: AI and Games Conference in November! 0123
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 16/08/2026I've refused age verification on any platform given a) they already have enough data to infer my age and b) fuck you and the idiots who came up with this shite. So was rather amused when Xbox messaged with "well you were playing Gears of War and EDF2017 in 2007 so that must mean you're an adult?" 2181
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 09/08/2026Hit the gym. Went outside. Touched grass. Picked strawberries. Now hiding indoors with iced coffee. Solid Sunday. 1181
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 30/07/2026Nothing more amusing (for everyone else) than listening to a Scotsman yell at a computer. 050
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 01/07/2026Don't you love how Sony have just fucked their audience so badly this generation? The only reason they get away with it is because Xbox have been so bad that they simply do not present any meaningful competition. 194
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 27/06/2026Plus a fun teaser: when I was out doing consultancy work with Riot Games in May I got to record two episodes in their content creation studio which was great fun. 030
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 26/06/2026"'No Way to Prevent This,' Says Industry Whose Behaviour Ensures This Regularly Happens" Brought to you courtesy of @videogameschronicle.com 1221
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 18/06/2026Big congrats to @georgeosborn.bsky.social on launching Power Play: a deep dive into the exploitation of video games for political gain. It was a huge effort in getting this book out the door and I'm very proud of him for smashing it out. Go check it out at: www.hachette.co.uk/titles/georg... 0112
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 06/06/2026Given I know someone will ask, 3291 games released (or releasing) in 2026 have AI disclosures against the 10401 games already out this year. So that's 32% of all games this year with a Gen AI flag. 2024 was 22%. My guess is Steam AI disclosures will increase at least 50% YoY to over 6000. 110
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 06/06/2026Holy McFuckSticks I am prepping a new presentation for Monday and the Steam AI disclosures for 2026 since March have increased from 1423 to 3291: another 131% increase. But again, the review counts are telling. 65% of these games have fewer than 10 reviews. A slop trough that nobody's buying. 1114
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 05/06/2026CEO lists use cases that show nobody thought this through. You're on the phone waiting to speak to your health insurance provider and the AI is asking what you know about 17th century poets. I don't fucking know AI Karen. I'm in the hospital needing an operation. I have bigger problems right now! 282
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 29/05/2026So if you wondered why I stopped doing livestreams on Thursdays, it's cause I was running online training sessions with the good folks at Riot! Just wrapped a crazy couple of days on site in LA running a workshop. Great fun and hopefully we can do it all over again. But for now, flight, sleep! 1180
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 10/05/2026Being chipping away at Dark Souls 3 since the end of January. Have a lot of thoughts about it as both a follow up to the original and Bloodborne. No doubt I'll make a video about it. But every now and then they drop an area like Lothric Castle with the Dragonslayer Armour boss, and it just clicks. 1101
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 05/05/2026Caught a preview screening of The Sheep Detectives at the weekend. It's a good laugh but... The premise that Hugh Jackman is murdered doesn't hold up when you see he's still Wolverine levels of jacked under that coat. 170
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 27/04/2026I love comments like these: 1) Expecting something simple means you don't understand the problem. 2) Game dev is hard. 3) They're not curing cancer because, I dunno, it's not their skillset? Just because my coffee is a bit pretentious doesn't mean the barista should go and become a physicist. 410310
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 23/04/2026Makes flippant remark. Double checks YouTube analytics. Yup, here we go again! 240
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 22/04/2026Some absolutely banging indie games in recent weeks. Still haven't had a chance to crack open Pragmata. Maybe I'll stream it at the weekend. While Vampire Crawlers will get all the exposure for sure, Replaced and Aether & Iron are great. Plus I'm still chipping away at Killing Stone and Raccoin. 290
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 06/04/2026Like what the fuck is this shit!?!? Everybody knows this pub is never this busy. Except maybe when the hordes of the damned come to visit??? 160
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 06/04/2026One of the local old man pubs is running an advert in the town magazine for it's annual beer festival and they've used generative AI to make it look like it's this bustling centre of brewing culture. This nightmare fuel is sending me. I just love it. 380
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 26/03/2026Plus next week I'll be releasing part one of this series as a video on the YouTube channel as well. In case you'd rather just watch/listen to me dole this out than sit and read another 10,000 word essay. 030
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 25/03/2026If you're wondering about the slop problem on Steam this year... oh boy. When I prepped a talk for @gamerepublic.bsky.social's event on Jan 28th, the number of 2026 games with AI disclosures was 268. Checking today (March 25th) for a talk next week, it's at 1423. A 430% increase in 2 months. 2369
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 22/03/2026Ah I see Crimson Desert is the latest to run the 'gen AI art was temporary and we forgot about it' excuse. If you actually forgot about it, then you lack appropriate studio policies for using genAI tooling. But then they conveniently only added the AI disclosure to Steam earlier today. 112740
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 21/03/2026⛔ Getting annoyed posting about DLSS5 again. ✅ Spending my morning coffee writing about Resident Evil 4 for the history chapter of my Game AI course. 290
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 16/03/2026Integrating the NVIDIA face renderer into DLSS was always going to be dicey - and I'm surprised they tried tbh. It fails at the first hurdle: the upscaled re-faced Grace Ashcroft should at least look like the high-res version of her, be it in-game or in marketing. These are two different people. 0111
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 14/03/2026Plus I've had confirmation that later this year we're going to see maybe two, possibly three AAA games announced that use generative AI in a far more substantial way. (I don't know anything about the games or studios, I just know who the AI suppliers are) The next wave is coming. As I predicted. 060
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 14/03/2026Don't think every other live service shooter or RPG maker who has thousands of lines of dialogue aren't contemplating shipping with a system like this, which in turn drives down the rates for voice actors. I wrote about this last year: www.aiandgames.com/p/arc-raider... 140
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 12/03/2026Meanwhile as I've reported before, AI disclosures have skyrocketed in the past two years. 22% of all released games in 2025 disclosed use of generative AI. Hell, it's at 1154 for 2026 already. When I looked this up just *three weeks ago*, we were at 750. Discoverability is tanking thanks to slop 051
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 12/03/2026So to put that into context. 5863 games earned $100k in 2025. Meanwhile 20,008 games were released in 2025. - Compare this just to games released in 2025? 29% - Versus all games on Steam since 2020? 6.8% - Versus all games on Steam? 4.8% And we're supposed to believe that's *good?* 172
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 11/03/2026My full breakdown is behind the paywall (please help support our work in fighting back against this bullshit), where I look at how the Lords have advocated for IP protections, a proper licensing market, strengthening of copyright, and building sovereign AI efforts that show good practice. 050
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 11/03/2026The House of Lords tore them a new one in this report. Highlighting that this "tacit acceptance" of IP exploitation by AI companies will do nothing to serve the UK's creative economy, and instead only harm a sector that is significantly larger than the UK's AI sector. 180
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 11/03/2026Let me stress 11k is A LOT for this kind of consultation. The last major generative AI consultation back in 2024 received around 250 submissions. As reported last year, this caught the government off guard, to a point that now they "have no preferred option" on what to do on AI legislation. 130
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 10/03/2026I love that I have achieved the status of being blocked on BlueSky both for working in AI, but also hating AI. I am hated by all sides. 😂 2220
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 08/03/2026For the Game AI course I crowdfunded, I'm writing a chapter of the course 'textbook' on the History of Game AI. Still a work in progress, but it's 30+ pages long and summarises CPU opponents in games from the 1950s right up to today. Lotta fun to write. Anyone fancy a longer standalone version? 3150
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 13/02/2026Game AI Uncovered volume 4 is out now, and I'm excited to say I contributed to see the series once again with a chapter on AI character design. So excited in fact, that until last week I forgot that my writing would appear in this volume! Looking forward to reading all the other chapters! 140
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 13/02/2026Huge congrats to @mackeza.bsky.social on the release of 'Super Nintendo'. Had this pre-ordered for months and very much looking forward to it. 150
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 12/02/2026I've been ploughing through @jasonschreier.bsky.social's ‘Play Nice’ this past week. It's an excellent read, even if you have no real affinity for Blizzard. I was just thinking how I've played nearly all of Blizzard's releases from the past 30 years, but none have ever really stuck with me. 140
Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 28/01/2026On the train(s) to Manchester for @gamerepublic.bsky.social's '2026 Trends and Opportunities' event in Manchester. I'm hosting an AMA on the @aiandgames.com YouTube community tab while I'm traveling. Send in a question! youtube.com/post/Ugkx9cv... 1102