Activision revive Warzone's Caldera map as open source (yay!) but say it's to help train AI (booo)

rockpapershotgun.com:

Hardened battle royalists will remember Caldera, the sandy island map of bunkers and palm trees in Call Of Duty: Warzone. It got shut down last year as Activision focused their efforts elsewhere, making the map unplayable. But you can now revisit those bullet-strewn beaches. In theory, anyway. Activision have released it as a 4GB open-source project that can be explored in a 3D model-viewing tool. That's cool. But among their reasons for doing so, there lies a predictably grubby logic: they want people to use the data to train AI.

"Open-source assets like Caldera play a vital role in the advancement of artificial intelligence," says a post by Activision accompanying the map files. "By providing a rich, diverse environment, we facilitate the training of AI models, enhancing the industry’s understanding of complex geometries and interactions. This can lead to more intelligent systems, paving the way for the next generation of gaming and simulation technologies."

It is easy to read this and assume it is Activision's way of saying: hey, level designers, your job is also unsafe. The data they're releasing also includes records of the paths players took across the island. That information is often critical to designers of these sorts of huge landmasses.

Whatever the company's motivation, it is certain to elicit mixed emotions in game development circles. Releasing something as open source is often viewed as a virtuous act in software development, since it has benefits that stretch beyond profit margins. But suggesting that your open source offering be used to train machinery that replaces paid human craft and artistry somewhat poisons that virtue. Activision don't seem to be bothered though.

"In an era where AI training and the evolution of authoring tools are pivotal, the availability of production-proven maps is crucial," they say. "This is about collaborating with the gaming and research community to build a foundation for responsible innovation and learning across