{"id":72691,"date":"2026-09-17T17:45:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T08:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=72691"},"modified":"2026-09-17T17:45:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T08:45:09","slug":"over-85-of-japanese-game-developers-use-generative-ai-in-game-development-2026-cesa-survey-shows-an-increase-from-last-years-51","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/over-85-of-japanese-game-developers-use-generative-ai-in-game-development-2026-cesa-survey-shows-an-increase-from-last-years-51\/","title":{"rendered":"Over 85% of Japanese game developers use generative AI in game development, 2026 CESA survey shows. An increase from last year\u2019s 51%"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Japan\u2019s Computer Entertainment Supplier\u2019s Association (CESA) released a preview of this year\u2019s <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cesa.or.jp\/action\/industry-research\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CESA Video Game Industry Report<\/a><\/strong> at Tokyo Game Show 2026 (which the organization runs). Among various insights into the domestic game industry, the report found that 85.8% of Japanese game developers now use generative AI in their work. Among them, 63% of developers said they use it on a daily basis, while the remaining 22.8% use it occasionally (via <a href=\"https:\/\/news.denfaminicogamer.jp\/news\/2609172l\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Denfaminicogamer<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The report is based on a survey that targeted game developers and CESA member companies (the list includes a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cesa.or.jp\/about\/member-list\/index-en.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">large number of prominent developers<\/a> like Capcom, Sega, Level-5, and Konami). While the preview did not disclose the most common uses of generative AI, the most commonly cited benefits developers expected were \u201cimproved operational efficiency and productivity\u201d, followed by \u201cshorter development cycles\u201d and \u201creduced development and operational costs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When asked about what measures they had in place for using generative AI, the most common response among developers was \u201cconducting human verification, correction, and supervision.\u201d The majority of responses cited practices such as specifying or restricting the tools used and avoiding the direct use of generated output.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Generative AI usage in game development has spiked from last year\u2019s CESA Video Game Industry Report, which was estimated at 51% among CESA member companies and game devs. In the 2025 report, the most commonly cited use of AI was the generation of visual assets and images, followed by story and text generation, and finally programming support. It was also reported that 32% of game companies enlisted the help of AI to develop in-house game engines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Commenting on the new 2026 statistics, CESA executive director Tsutomu Masuda said, \u201cThis demonstrates that generative AI is being widely and steadily adopted in development environments.\u201d He added, however, that concerns regarding infringement that arise from generative AI must be addressed by the game industry as it continues to use the technology. He noted that moving forward, a key challenge for the industry\u2019s future will be how to enhance the quality of human-centered game development while balancing the incorporation of new technological possibilities with the protection of intellectual property rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/level-5-says-some-suspected-ai-oddities-from-trailers-were-actually-human-errors-apologizes-for-fueling-doubt-with-careless-use-of-ai-in-some-of-its-videos\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Level-5 says some suspected AI oddities from trailers were actually human errors, apologizes for fueling doubt with \u201ccareless use of AI\u201d in some of its videos<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/capcom-engineers-say-even-the-smartest-ai-cant-match-our-creators-when-it-comes-to-sensibility-the-technology-is-being-adopted-to-reduce-routin\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Capcom engineers say even the smartest\u00a0AI \u201ccan\u2019t match our creators when it comes to sensibility.\u201d\u00a0The technology is\u00a0being adopted to reduce\u00a0\u201croutine tasks\u201d\u00a0instead<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CESA is the organizer of Tokyo Game Show.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":72693,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[{"did":"did:plc:uzrrhkfyjrfdsynj2voztcf2","date":"2026-09-17T08:45:14+00:00","uri":"at:\/\/did:plc:uzrrhkfyjrfdsynj2voztcf2\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3mvpbaqgcg72h","response":"{\"uri\":\"at:\/\/did:plc:uzrrhkfyjrfdsynj2voztcf2\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3mvpbaqgcg72h\",\"cid\":\"bafyreicaxg3ruel33cdme5bgadl2pgpwxe7h2muf3rn4yfyz66yo7amzs4\",\"commit\":{\"cid\":\"bafyreicmpqitmxmrh7j6hajxdibgn6o2bmmkdp2pja7tzso6k2csbjkqju\",\"rev\":\"3mvpbaqgp4h2h\"},\"validationStatus\":\"valid\"}"}],"autoblue_post_url":"","autoblue_publish_document":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[64,3],"tags":[67,17],"class_list":["post-72691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-development","category-news","tag-ai","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Over 85% of Japanese game developers use generative AI in game development, 2026 CESA survey shows. An increase from last year\u2019s 51% - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/over-85-of-japanese-game-developers-use-generative-ai-in-game-development-2026-cesa-survey-shows-an-increase-from-last-years-51\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Over 85% of Japanese game developers use generative AI in game development, 2026 CESA survey shows. 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