Razer CEO Says Gamers Support AI Tools in Game Development

Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan says players are largely supportive of artificial intelligence (AI) in game development when it is used to improve efficiency and quality, but remain opposed to AI-generated creative content. Tan stated gamers want faster development, fewer bugs, and better polish, not low-quality automated assets.

Tan made the comments in an interview with The Verge, where he was questioned by editor-in-chief, Nilay Patel, during a live taping of Decoder. The conversation was recorded in front of an audience at Brooklyn Bowl in Las Vegas (LA) during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

The interview followed Razer’s announcement that it plans to invest $600 million USD into AI initiatives over the next few years and hire about 150 AI engineers. Patel put it to Tan that players appear to be “in open revolt” against AI in games, questioning whether Razer’s push positions the company out of step with its audience.

Tan pointed out the backlash is being misread, “I think we’re unhappy with generative AI slop,” he said, adding that gamers do not want immersion broken by flawed character models or weak writing. He drew a clear distinction between AI-generated content and AI-powered tools that support developers.

Razer Positions AI as a Productivity Tool for Developers

As an example, Tan pointed to Razer’s AI-driven QA companion, designed to work alongside human testers by automatically categorizing bugs and logging them into systems like Jira. He stated that quality assurance can account for 30% to 40% of development costs and is a major source of delays.

“If we could get game developers to have the opportunity to create better, to check through typos and things like that, to create better games, I think we all want that,” Tan said.

The interview also touched on Razer’s controversial Project Ava, an AI companion powered by Grok, and wider gamer concerns around AI’s impact on hardware costs and industry priorities. Tan commented that he shares some of those concerns but believes productivity-focused AI can ultimately lead to better, more stable games.