Nvidia Wants AI to Alter Game Art

Nvidia wants to change how players that use their video cards see their games. Find out the details, including reaction from developers and consumers. Also, if you’re out chasing Pokémon, are you actually training AI for delivery robots? All this and more. Let’s go!

Nvidia's changing the game

At Nvidia’s GTC conference last week, CEO Jensen Huang showed off their upcoming AI-powered gaming technology, DLSS 5. The technology is generally used to boost performance or upscale games. However, what Huang showed took it a step further, and many players and developers might say a step too far. 

“DLSS 5 introduces a real-time neural rendering model that infuses pixels with photoreal lighting and materials,” Nvidia said in a press release. “Bridging the divide between rendering and reality, DLSS 5 empowers game developers to deliver a new level of photoreal computer graphics previously only achieved in Hollywood visual effects.”

However gaming fans and developers were not too keen on the new look graphics DLSS 5 produced. According to Insider-Gaming.com, developers, including those whose games were featured in the video, were not aware of how DLSS 5 would render their games. From the article:

Developers at CAPCOM tell Insider Gaming that the announcement and the publisher’s involvement were particularly shocking, as CAPCOM has previously been historically very “anti-AI” with projects such as Resident Evil Requiem and other unannounced projects in development.

Many players took to social media saying how the new graphics make the game look worse. When asked about this by Tom’s Hardware, Huang said those who criticized the new standard were “completely wrong.” Huang also states that developers can “fine-tune the generative AI” and that it “doesn’t change the artistic control.”

However, IGN points out that the technology is actually re-drawing games, and preventing players from seeing the original art that studios created. IGN calls it a slap in the face to the art of video game design. We want to know what you think. Does DLSS 5 look cool or like AI slop? Take our reader poll and let us know.

The announcement has already inspired hundreds of memes across social media. Here are a few of our favorites:

Pokémon trainers train robots

Pokémon Go players are not only training their virtual creatures, they are training AI robots. 

Niantic Spatial, an AI company spun off from the developer of Pokémon Go, has reportedly collected over 30 billion images from users, and can use that data to find a location down to a centimeter. Players of the game are rewarded for doing “Field Research,” which prompts them to scan real-world landmarks with their phone’s cameras. Players receive in-game rewards for completing Field Research, while Niantic Spatial gets three-dimensional images from around a city. 

So how does this all work? Coco Robotics CEO Zach Rash explains that in major cities, delivery robots cannot count on GPS. “We do deliveries in a lot of dense areas with high-rises and underpasses and freeways, and those are the areas where GPS just never really works,” says Rash. Data from Niantic Spatial can help a delivery bot decipher landmarks and find its way when GPS is not available.

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Side Quests (more stories worth reading)

🐉 Despite being one of Steam’s most-played games and selling over 2 million copies within a day of its release, the stock price of Crimson Desert’s publisher dropped 30% due to average critics scores. 

🤖 Also, Crimson Desert developer Pearl Abyss apologized for the use of AI-generated art in the game. 

👋🏼 A new Switch 2 update lets users play original Switch games at 1080p in handheld mode. 

🏅 Hades 2 and Date Everything lead the 2026 nominations at the Gayming Awards, while Clair Obscur and Dispatch lead BAFTA nominations. 

🏆 Co-operative puzzle board game Take Time won the 2026 Swiss Gamers Award. 

🤖 A judge ordered the reinstatement of the leadership team working on Subnautica 2 after it was determined their publisher used ChatGPT to avoid paying them a $250 million bonus.

🧱 Minecraft held an online event where they announced a new London theme park, Minecraft Dungeons 2 and much more. 

🚀 Starfield is coming to PlayStation 5 April 7. 

🥽 After initially saying it would shut down, Meta says it is keeping Horizon Worlds VR running for now. 

😕 PlayStation plans to phase out their “PlayStation Network” branding by Sept. 2026. At this time, there is no mention of how it will be branded going forward. 

👎🏾 Ubisoft is ending game development and laying off over 100 employees at the studio behind Ghost Recon and other Tom Clancy games. 

🧑🏻‍🚒 Remedy released its final major update for FBC: Firebreak.

🎥 Movie director John Carpenter made a list of his favorite video games of all time, and a few he is excited to play. 

📈 Round numbers: Lies Of P sold over 4 million copies while the indie game and Roger sold over 100,000 copies. 

New Releases this week:

Check out our article on 14 new games to play in March.

3/26: Life is Strange: Reunion (PlayStation, Xbox and PC)
3/26: Project Songbird (PlayStation, Xbox and PC)
3/26: Screamer (PlayStation, Xbox and PC)
3/26: Mega Man Star Force: Legacy Collection (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC)

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