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On the night of April 8th, the official socials for Identity V posted the official cinematic promoting COA IX’s Group Stages which featured the usage of AI.
One particular shot of Joseph caught the attention of the community as looking AI generated. This along with other previous cases where the developers for the game have been accused of AI led to the straw breaking the camel’s back. A wave of players expressing their discontent and concerns over the AI situation is currently taking social media by storm.
The shot that broke the camel’s back. The clearest sign of AI is Joseph’s left hand which only shows 4 fingers.
Across social media sites like Twitter, Reddit, Xiahongshu (Red Note) and more, the shameless usage of AI in IDV has become the center of conversation.
Most are expressing their anger and worries over the game’s future. On Twitter, IDV users are urging others to email NetEase over their concerns and utilize the recent event survey to voice their complaints. Many users are also leaving comments under the official IDV English and Japanese Twitter accounts expressing their disappointment over the usage of AI.
Major content creators for IDV are also expressing their distaste and disappointment.
Zeez, a popular IDV content creator on YouTube expresses his disappointment. He goes on to say in a follow up tweet that he’ll likely make changes to how he plays the game and how he makes content.
And while the overwhelming majority of IDV players who are vocalizing their concerns are English speakers, there are someJapanese Korean, Thai on Twitter and Chinese players on XiaoHongshu also expressing their displeasure.
Posts on the IDV subreddit and Twitter are being made lamenting over how the design process and older artworks were made with love and human ingenuity in comparison to the much plainer design sheets and simpler design process that appears to be plaguing the game recently.
However, NetEase have never been shy to express their liking in using AI for their video games.
In a news release published back in February of this year, NetEase announced the financial results of their fourth quarter and fiscal year for 2025. Their net revenue was an impressive RMB27.5 billion (or $233.7 million in US dollars) which was an increase of 3% compared with the same quarter of 2024.
In Identity V’s case, according to Appmagic, an online toolkit used for mobile app market research, the monthly revenue the game brings is about $10,000,000 US dollars. While that sounds grand, it clearly does not stop them in using part of that budget for AI.
In the financial news report, under the heading “Fourth Quarter 2025 and Recent Operational Highlights,” the very first bullet point states:
After years of concentrated, purposeful effort, achieved comprehensive integration of AI across the full game development and gameplay innovation cycle – from art and design to programming, animation and quality assurance – strengthening high volume, scalable production and enabling the smooth rollout of dynamic, AI-native gameplay features in multiple flagship titles.
And in addition, at the end of that segment, Mr. William Ding, CEO and Director of NetEase is quoted as saying:
“AI has become a foundational competency for our development and operations. We have been systematically applying AI throughout game development and gameplay, where it is already driving meaningful improvement in production efficiency and unlocking new interactive experiences for our players that were previously out of reach.
“Looking ahead, we remain focused on delivering exceptional experiences across the NetEase family of businesses. By fostering a creative talent ecosystem, deepening collaboration with partners worldwide and thoughtfully advancing our AI-application capabilities, we aim to further extend the longevity of our franchises while continuing to deliver innovative experiences to create even greater value for our global players and shareholders alike.”
So NetEase is by no means shy about showcasing their usage of AI. In fact, they appear rather proud of it and continuously seek new ways in implementing them in their games.
Paradoxically, and almost ignorantly, while they acknowledge their global playerbase by aiming to deliver “innovative experiences,” evidentially they did not stop to think that global players are deeply averse to seeing AI invade creative spaces as many cannot see AI and creative innovation sharing the same space.
Just last month, at GDC Festival of Gaming, a gathering of the B2B games industry, NetEase had two sessions for themselves that discussed how they successfully implemented AI in their game development production and TikTok creation.
The two panel sessions in question.
Unlike other companies who steer very well clear of associating themselves with AI, and if they do use it, they adamantly refuse to use it for the creative process, NetEase is the exact opposite. This is perhaps due to the more open acceptance of using AI in places like China and Japan as opposed to the United States, Canada, or anywhere considered “the West.”
Yet, NetEase has become a more global company thanks to the likes of Identity V and its most recent massive success, Marvel Rivals. In order, to not draw away the international player base, it is a must that they have to either readjust their strategies or be more transparent about their specific practices in their games to their Western players.