Konami, of all companies, has given a reasonable response against the growth of AI and the usage of AI tools in game development. Most companies these days, including a notorious announcement from Epic Games, are openly shifting towards embracing AI but Konami thinks it won’t have a significant impact on the gaming industry.

Hideki Hayakawa, the president of Konami Digital Entertainment, made comments in the company’s latest business report. Namely, he spoke about the potential impact of generative AI on the gaming industry. Hayakawa argues that although generative AI will ultimately lower the entry barrier to game development, it won’t bring any significant changes to the gaming market in the way many people and publishers think.



“Even if AI use does lead to improvements in production efficiency, I believe that the most important factors in producing entertaining and innovative video games are people and creators,” he said in the business report.

Konami has hit the nail on the head. When it comes to the creative processes of game development, generative AI is limited and doesn’t have the same capabilities as a human’s creative touch or imagination. In fact, all gen-AI tools scrape original works online to produce amalgamations – or more accurately, imitations – of “original” art pieces or scripts. Pure original creation will still belong to people and creators and that’s something Hayakawa is fully aware of.

On the other hand, Konami is still open to experimenting with new, emergent technologies but it’s making sure that the human creators are at the forefront and have a final say in how they’re used for game development. Hayakawa added:

“Even when it comes to epoch-making technological innovations, Konami provides systematic support so that creators can get a grasp of new technologies, properly assess the risks they may bring, and safely apply them to game development.”