The feeling that there are too many interesting video games to keep up with has never been stronger. Gamescom 2026’s Opening Night Live showcase has only added to the overload, but generative AI is casting a shadow over some promising games at the same time that it’s fueling a big new tax on gaming. This tension was on full display during Geoff Keighley’s latest event.

“It is no secret that video games and the video game industry is changing and evolving,” the host said on stage this week. “On one level that’s exciting, but on another it’s kind of scary. It feels like there isn’t a week we don’t see headlines about layoffs and studio closures, and on top of that, the larger electronics storage and memory crisis means that acquiring game hardware is more expensive than it’s ever been.”

But that increased expense isn’t happening in a vacuum. It’s being perpetuated by some of the very companies Keighley allowed to promote their games on his global stage.

Some of the games featured during Gamescom ONL were already known to include genAI. The developers of Crimson Desert apologized to players for that game’s usage of genAI and promised to remove the offending assets in later updates. After players caught genAI in 1666: Amsterdam , its developers also said they would make changes. Sega doesn’t seem to give a shit that the usage of genAI in Crazy Taxi: World Tour has muted the return of a well-loved classic, and Zoopunk ‘s genAI usage is for its user generated content tool that’ll let players create in-game assets.

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