With The Alters, a special survival game was released on Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation, where you need to clone yourselves and make difficult decisions. The game was also popular on Metacritic, but now there are complaints about the use of AI.
– For generating placeholder text that was supposed to be removed at release
– For translating some subtitles for the films that the studio created for The Alters
The latter was due to time constraints, as the studio 11 Bit Studios actually has a translation partner. Both community comments regarding the use of AI will be removed from the game.
The team also admits that they should have informed the community that an AI was involved in the development process. They apologize and emphasize that transparency is important to them (Source: x.com).
What is The Alters? In The Alters, you take on the role of Jan Dolski, an astronaut who has crashed after an expedition. He is the only survivor of his team and now faces challenges that he cannot overcome alone.
For this reason, he uses a quantum computer to replicate himself from different realities in order to activate his base. The goal is to survive, gather resources, and escape alive from the planet you are stuck on.
The game has a Metascore of 84 and a User Score of 8.3 on Metacritic – solid ratings, but now fans have discovered that the developers worked with an AI without mentioning it.
Developers forgot to remove AI responses from the game
What have fans discovered? The Alters allegedly used AI to generate text or translate conversations. The former is said to occur in the background, on various displays of the base. Sentences like “Sure, here is a revised version that focuses solely on scientific and astronomical data.” have been discovered on the displays, which AIs send to the user when they execute a command.
Another piece of evidence for the use of AI is the aforementioned translation. In Portuguese, texts along with the AI’s response are displayed to the player and packed into the subtitles. For many fans, this is a reason to boycott the game, as the developers have concealed the use of AI.
What is the problem for many? There are different games on Steam that use AIs to ease development. Some use them to assist with translation, while other studios create designs with them.
Valve has clearly stated in a post what things must be disclosed as AI-generated content (Source: store.steampowered.com). This includes:
- Pre-generated: Any content created during development using AI tools (artwork, code, audio, etc.)
- Live-generated: Any content created using AI tools in the running game
For many fans, this also includes assistance with content translation, as well as creating small details in the background – like the displays on the monitors. The Alters currently (as of June 30, 10:56 AM) does not have a description that they have used AI for development.
It cannot be said what exactly was created with AI and what wasn’t.
We have requested a statement from 11Bit Studios, the developers of The Alters. Our article will be updated as soon as we receive a response.
How are fans reacting to the omission? They are disappointed. Many of them were excited about The Alters and even wanted to leave good reviews on Steam, but now after the concealment of the AI usage, they are appalled. The following can be heard on Steam:
- “Garbage with undisclosed AI-generated content.” – tortique
- “This game uses artificial intelligence, but that is not disclosed. Had I known this, I wouldn’t have purchased it.” – mousithri
- “It breaks your heart when such a unique artistic vision is ruined by AI. I am very disappointed with an otherwise good game. I hope the developers will listen and fix it in the future.” – Чоки
- “I enjoyed the interpersonal drama of the game, but then I found out that it used generative AI for translations, at least for some background texts and symbols. I wouldn’t have bought the game if it had been disclosed according to Valve’s agreements.” – Periapsys
It remains to be seen how the developers will respond to the debacle, but so far there has been no response from the studio or any of the developers of The Alters. Until then, you can find new survival alternatives here: The 30 best survival games of 2025 for PS5, Steam, and Xbox
