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EA Sports College Football 25, which has garnered 2.2 million players during its Early Access period, is a huge success for the company and marks the first time a game publisher has publicly used generative AI in its game development process. According to company CEO Andrew Wilson, using the technology was the only way for EA Orlando to realize its full vision for the game.

During last week’s quarterly earnings call, Wilson was asked about the use of generative AI to bring real-world players into the game. Known as “celebrity avatars,” the series previously only had around 500 to 1,000, but the new game has 11,000.

Wilson stressed that having all the stars was a "top priority" because of an agreement that allowed the game to exist (the NCAA did not cooperate on the new game, and although EA can still use team uniforms and logos, it cannot use player appearances). "We have an amazing team that built a workflow to facilitate this, but they have made it more enhanced and accelerated through AI and machine learning," he said.

Orlando Studios used generative AI and machine learning to come up with “celebrity headshots,” which were then “retouched and enhanced” by artists. It’s claimed that this is better than a full development process, even though College Football 25 has been in development for “many, many years.”

Wilson concluded: “Without AI, we simply wouldn’t be able to deliver College Football at the level we do today.”

"Generative AI" has a bad reputation in the creative industry right now, but Wilson said using the technology will help shape the future of the series. He said that it has been ten years since the last game in the series, and without this technology "the level of gameplay and visual fidelity" would not have been possible a few years ago or even now.