Yeah or an artist they already have on salary. This was just less work for someone already working for them.
It doesn’t matter if you all don’t like ai art. It’s not going away and it will only continue to be more prevalent.
You should embrace it. I say this as someone who has a ton of debt from art school still. Resistance is futile.
I would argue they don’t even need to be updated. They were fun already in their time. I wish people would just come up with totally new ideas. I don’t need the same characters in every game I play. Same with movies now too Everything is a remake or a sequel.
I love to play indie games though.