Game developer Capcom recently published a summary of their informational briefing session for investors held in February this year. During the briefing, while addressing the shareholder’s various questions and concerns, the company clarified its stance on the use of generative AI, explaining that it will not be using AI-generated assets in its games (source: Game*Spark). However, this does not mean that the company will completely avoid using AI technology during production.
“Our company will not be implementing any AI-generated assets into our video game content. On the other hand, going forward, we plan to actively utilize this technology in order to improve efficiency and productivity of game development. That is why we are currently testing out various methods of usage across our departments, including graphics, sound, and programming,” Capcom wrote in the briefing session summary.
It is still unclear to what extent Capcom plans to utilize AI technology to “improve workplace efficiency” in said areas. However, in an interview from last year, the company’s technical director Kazuki Abe gave us some hints on what this could entail.
While even back then there weren’t any signs of the company wanting to use AI to generate anything directly related to gameplay, stories or character designs, according to Abe, Capcom was experimenting with the technology to streamline the “idea creating process” required for creating miscellaneous objects for in-game environments. Specifically, each object used in-game, no matter how trivial to the story or gameplay, needs to be designed from scratch. As Abe noted, this requires developers to come up with “thousands to tens of thousands” unique ideas, which is one of the most time-consuming and labor-intensive parts of development. This is why Capcom decided to attempt streamlining this process using generative AI. However, it is unclear to what degree Capcom’s has maintained this stance, as it could be possible that they are currently exploring different ways of utilizing the technology.
On a related note, similarly to Capcom, Blue Archive producer and head of Nexon Games’ IO Division Yongha Kim also recently shared his stance on generative AI, explaining that, rather than generating in-game content, the technology will be used to reduce tedious tasks and non-creative labor within the company. On account of recent backlash game developers have been facing for using AI assets in their works, with one recent example being Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s disqualification from the Indie Game Awards, it seems like many companies might be leaning towards utilizing generative AI for the reduction of tedious tasks and efficiency improvements, while keeping the actual contents of their games human-made.
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