Minecraft developer Mojang has firmly stated its stance against incorporating generative artificial intelligence into its game development process. As the use of generative AI becomes increasingly prevalent in the gaming industry, evident in cases like Activision's use of AI-generated art in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Microsoft's development of Muse—an AI designed to generate game ideas—Mojang stands out by prioritizing the human touch that has made Minecraft the best-selling game of all time, with over 300 million copies sold.
During a recent event attended by IGN, Minecraft Vanilla game director Agnes Larsson emphasized the importance of human creativity in game development. "Here for us, just like Minecraft is about creativity and creating," Larsson said, "I think it's important that it makes us feel happy to create as humans. That's a purpose, [it] makes life look beautiful. So for us, we really want it to be our teams that make our games."
Echoing Larsson's sentiments, Ingela Garneij, executive producer of Minecraft Vanilla, highlighted the unique human element that defines Minecraft. "For me, it's the thinking outside of the box part. This specific touch of: what is Minecraft? How does it look? That extra quality is really tricky to create through AI. We even try to have remote teams sometimes and guide them in building things for us, which has never worked, because you have to be here working together face-to-face. I mean creativity is... you need to meet like this as a person, as a human to really truly understand the values and principles and the ecosystem, the lore, everything. It's so massive Minecraft, it's a planet, it's massive."
The commitment to human creativity continues to drive Minecraft's success. Mojang is set to release a new graphics update titled Vibrant Visuals in the near future, and the company remains steadfast in its decision not to make Minecraft free-to-play. This approach of enhancing and expanding the original game aligns with Mojang's reluctance to develop a "Minecraft 2." Despite being 16 years old, Minecraft shows no signs of slowing down, and generative AI remains absent from its development process.
For more updates on what's coming to Minecraft, be sure to check out everything announced at Minecraft Live 2025.
