THE CRUNCH
Sega is taking a "very cautious" approach to AI in game development and has ruled it out entirely for creative work. Tsuyoshi Saito, the company's senior executive officer and deputy chief business officer, told Nikkei that AI is already used to improve efficiency in publishing and corporate departments and to generate business ideas, but that Sega is "not entrusting the creative aspects of games to AI".
Sega has already run into mixed reactions on this front. Earlier this year the company confirmed generative AI was used during the initial research phase of the upcoming Crazy Taxi: World Tour, while insisting it was not used to create any art assets. Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis has also confirmed AI use as a productivity tool and for an in-game function that gives players real-time AI responses to messages.
Behind the policy sits a Generative AI Committee, revealed at a CEDEC talk last year, which develops tools, sets guidelines and runs compliance checks for Steam listings. According to 4Gamer, because views on generative AI differ across regions, the committee includes public relations and legal members from each region. Japan declared in 2023 that training AI models on datasets does not violate copyright law, even commercially. Sega's caution sits against a broader Japanese backdrop: a recent Japan Online Game Association report claimed 100% of surveyed Japanese online game developers use generative AI tools, though that survey covered only internet-played domestic games and excluded console, PC and offline mobile titles.