Since Split Fiction’s release earlier this month, countless reviews and articles have cited it as a game that’s unequivocally against the use of AI to replace artists. The game portrays two young writers who show up at Rader Publishing after being promised a publishing deal, but end up instead hooked up to a machine that simulates their stories and steals their ideas.
Josef Fares Isn’t Even Anti-AI
You can see the metaphor here – Hazelight head Josef Fares himself has told Inverse that the machine is connected to generative AI, though he does also caveat that, “At the end of the day, it all goes down to the vision and then the passion, and if AI becomes a great tool or not, it’s only going to hopefully help us make even better games.”
In a separate interview with VGC, Fares says about generative AI, “If it’s part of the industry we should see how to implement it to see how we get better games. I can understand the fact that some people could lose their jobs but that goes for every new technology.
“Bad stuff and good stuff will come out of it. You can’t just close your eyes. I believe AI will have a bigger impact on the world than the internet had, eventually. It’s a long time until you can use it in an actual development, at least not at our place, maybe others can do it.”
Related
Split Fiction’s Story Isn’t Serious Or Silly Enough To Work
Split Fiction’s writing isn’t bad, it’s worse: it’s boring
Split Fiction Might Not Even Be About AI
Unequivocal this is not, and proof of this wishy-washiness lies in the game itself. As I play it, knowing that many have interpreted its story as being a diatribe against generative AI, I find myself wondering if instead, its themes are broader than that. Throughout the game, the machine never steals work – these women are writers, yet it’s not their prose that’s being put into a Large Language Model, but their ideas, even those that never led to anything, the things they dreamed up in childhood.
There’s evidence to support an AI reading. Over and over, the big bad Rader reiterates that he’s trying to extract creativity, that these stories are part of a “much larger plan”, that his machine will be able to create “masterpieces at the touch of a button”. He insists that what’s important isn’t the ideas he’s stealing, but the potential of that harnessed creativity to create art faster and better than any one person could.
Related
The Split Fiction Movie Is Guaranteed To Be Bad
It’s a fun game, but there’s basically no plot to it.
But the metaphor is muddled. What exactly is Rader trying to create? He tells the writers at the beginning of the game that their stories will be simulated and packaged. What does this have to do with the craft of writing? How is this going to “change storytelling forever” when he’s creating works in an entirely different medium with his machine? Why is he stealing stories dreamt up in childhood, with immature sensibilities? And what use is a whole bunch of ideas stolen from other iconic works?
There’s another, perhaps more tenuous interpretation, but one that makes more sense given what we now know about Fares’ attitudes towards AI. I see Rader as more of a stand-in for corporate interests and the companies that monopolise industries – Rader talks about dominating markets as much as he does creativity, and Mio and Zoe accuse him of being “another big corporation screwing over the little guy”. Harvesting creativity could be a metaphor for the game developers who are sucked into the machine and spat out, left without jobs.
Perhaps that’s not the case at all, but the alternative is that the writing is as confused as Fares’ opinions. And, to be fair, the writing’s pretty bad overall, so that’s entirely possible. After all, this is a game that prioritises fun over meaning. But I’m not so sure the game understands what it’s really trying to say, and there’s a real chance we’re reading more into this than Fares intended.
Action
Adventure
Sci-Fi
Fantasy
-
OpenCritic
-
Top Critic Rating:
90/100
Critics Recommend:
98%
- Released
-
March 6, 2025
- ESRB
-
T For Teen // Blood and Gore, Crude Humor, Language, Violence
- Developer(s)
-
Hazelight Studios