Gaming Giants Electronic Arts and Krafton Are Going Big on Generative AI

By Andrew Hayward

Two gaming industry giants announced Thursday that they’re embracing generative AI in a substantial way, with both Electronic Arts and Krafton saying that they aim to prioritize creative empowerment through AI technologies.

Electronic Arts and Stability AI announced a strategic partnership to co-develop generative AI models, tools, and workflows that will transform game creation processes. EA is among the biggest and most storied third-party game publishers, driving popular franchises like EA Sports FC, Battlefield, and Madden NFL, while Stability AI is best known for its popular Stable Diffusion model.

The partnership focuses on practical applications that enhance creative workflows. Initial projects include accelerating the creation of physically based rendering (PBR) materials through artist-driven workflows, such as generating 2D textures with precise color and light accuracy.

The companies are also developing AI systems capable of pre-visualizing entire 3D environments from prompts. The partnership aims to enable rapid prototyping and visual storytelling, while allowing artists to maintain creative control and quality standards.

“Creativity has always been at the heart of everything our teams do,” said EA VP of Creative Innovation Kallol Mitra, in a statement. “Together with Stability AI, we’re amplifying that creativity. Giving artists, designers, and developers the power to dream bigger and build more.”

EA’s announcement comes just weeks after the firm said it had agreed to be acquired by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners for $55 billion. The planned sale faced criticism from gamers and industry analysts over the amount of debt EA will be saddled with, and from senators over the potential for “foreign influence and national security risks.”

Also Thursday, PUBG and Subnautica publisher Krafton announced a comprehensive transformation into an "AI First" company, centering operations around agentic AI to automate workflows and enable employees to focus on creative activities and complex problem-solving.

The company is making substantial investments to support this vision, including approximately 100 billion KRW (nearly $70 billion) for GPU cluster infrastructure to support sophisticated reasoning and iterative planning tasks. Additionally, Krafton will allocate roughly 30 billion KRW (nearly $21 billion) annually starting in 2026 for employee AI tool utilization—more than 10 times the current support level.

The transformation encompasses three strategic pillars: establishing an AI-first culture through learning platforms and hackathons, innovating work methods by restructuring organizational management, and providing new growth opportunities through expanded employee mobility and role expansion.

“We will leap forward as a company that promotes the growth of members and expands the organization’s areas of challenge through AI,” said Krafton CEO Kim Chang-han, in a statement.

Krafton aims to complete its AI platform and data integration foundation by the second half of 2026, establishing company-wide AI operation infrastructure in an attempt to strengthen its competitive position in the global gaming market.

EA and Krafton join a growing list of major game publishers that have embraced generative AI, including Ubisoft and Microsoft. However, the practice has faced substantial backlash from gamers, who say it’s stripping jobs from a volatile industry and sucking human creativity out of game development.

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