Activision is again under fire for alleged use of generative AI, now a fake guitar hero game?

Activision is once again struggling with fans for generating AI. A week after acknowledging the use of AI generated Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 For many assets, publishers are now accused of using Generative AI again to promote other games: Guitar Hero Mobile. But even as viewers criticize the promotion, sharp fans find that guitar hero phones may not be the real game in the first place.

According to Insider Gamingthe generative AI seems to be already in Instagram ads for newly announced guitar hero phones Posted two days ago. The ad features four guitar players in a very similar pose on a stage with a very similar red guitar, surrounded by twisted speakers that look like a washing machine and some Blobby microphones directly behind it.

In front of them is an audience with many visible legs that do not seem to belong to anyone, while the center is a guitar hero track with incorrect color tracks and spots, inconsistent notes, some of which do not match their tracks. Put together, all of these issues are narrative signs of generating AI art, and given the latest record of Activision, it's likely that this is what's happening.

In the comments, fans were angry. “When you can't even get your game correctly, it's a sign of how much effort it's been put into place,” one response reads. Another person calls the ad “lazy AI ramp”, while another reads, “You'd think that giant companies like Activision have a certain budget for real graphic designers.” The fourth said, “Wow. It seems they are still using Midjourney 1.0. I haven't seen Ai Art so bad again since the early days.”

But this is not where the weird generation of AI ads ends. As some websites, e.g. Time extension and 80.lv It has been pointed out that Activision appears to have quietly abandoned many of the advertising generated by AI creation on Instagram to show some games that the company has not announced yet. These include a Call of Duty zombie mobile game, the so-called Call of Duty: Sniper and other things called Crash Bandicoot Brawl. At that time, we wrote this article, none of these ads can be viewed publicly on Activision's official Instagram, but the guitar hero mobile game ads are still there Available via direct link.

Even strange things are that fans manage to Find the page of Guitar Hero mobile phone There are more AI images on a website called GeekLab. GeekLab is a user acquisition and insight company that allows publishers to create “similar” store pages for mobile games to test user interests. Click Get on Guitar Hero Mobile Page Take users to survey This claims “This is not a real game, but maybe one day!” and asks them some questions to understand why they click on ads and the possibility of playing guitar hero phones and things like that.

Official: Activision is currently considering making a new COD zombie mobile game. Playing football?

They are using AI-generated ads to get people interested.

The complete story below:

Recently, a formal Instagram ad calling was released a few hours ago… pic.twitter.com/cqeqyivwfq

– Cod: Zombie News (@margwanetwork) February 28, 2025

What seems to be happening is that Activision launches some kind of ad campaign to assess users’ interest in many possible mobile games that do not exist yet. Because the games are not real, it uses generated AI for advertising art and puts fans in trouble who would have been shocked by the actual guitar hero mobile game.

This is only recognized by Activision for the use of Generative AI in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Actually discovered and summoned in Decemberbut it took the publisher nearly three months Acknowledges that it uses generated AI in Call of Duty screens, phone cards and other games.

Activision declined to comment on IGN.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior journalist at IGN. You can find her post on bluesky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Is there a story tip? Send it to [email protected].