Sega has decided not to "entrust the creative aspect of games to AI," but plans to leverage technology to "enhance efficiency" in other areas

Crazy Taxi: World Tour — Image credit: Sega

Sega has chosen not to assign the creative tasks of game development to artificial intelligence, yet it is leveraging the technology in areas such as publishing to boost efficiency.

According to an interview in Nikkei, as reported by VGC, Sega’s senior executive officer Tsuyoshi Saito explained that the company approaches the application of generative AI with a "very cautious" mindset, particularly during development phases.

"AI is used to improve efficiency in publishing and corporate sectors, and for business ideas," stated Saito. "However, we handle AI with care in game creation, and creative processes remain untouched by AI."

VGC highlighted that in the previous year, Sega formed a "Generative AI Committee," disclosed at a CEDEC discussion led by technical director Taishi Yokoshima.

This committee features an "AI Task Force" aimed at crafting proprietary AI tools, as noted by ITmedia through machine translation.

"Moreover, there is collaboration with PR teams in North America and Europe to meet requirements from game platforms concerning AI information sharing."

Earlier this year, Sega stirred controversy when it admitted to using generative AI "during the development of background assets" for Crazy Taxi: World Tour, a fact confirmed by the series' creator Kenji Kanno at Summer Game Fest in a conversation documented by Kotaku.

Kanno elaborated: "Our usage of generative AI is limited to providing ideas and references. This topic will likely become more prevalent moving forward, but that's the extent of our disclosure on AI's role in this specific game."

Similarly, Crystal Dynamics informed GamesIndustry.biz about employing generative AI for initial prototyping in the development of Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis.

Experience director Jeff Adams commented on AI's role: "If we're uncertain about spending time to create an in-game item, a generative AI tool allows us to visualize it. If it proves effective, it enters our traditional production process." He added, "All final game contents are crafted by our team. Our goal is to streamline the process for developers to produce high-quality games, meeting fans' expectations."