Sega says AI will make development efficient, but acknowledges “strong resistance” to the tech

Japanese publishing giant Sega has said that it will be employing AI in game development, but says it will be cautious in how it is used.

That’s according to the official English translation of the firm’s investor Q&A, in which the company’s management said it would be employing the tech in developing projects, but would use AI selectively. This is, in part, due to the fact that there is “strong resistance” to AI.

This was in reply to a question about whether Sega was going to be following the trend towards larger game projects or not.

“Rather than fully following the trend toward the large-scale development, we will also pursue efficiency improvements, such as leveraging AI,” Sega management said.

“However, as AI adoption can face strong resistance in creative areas such as character creation, we will proceed by carefully assess appropriate use cases, such as streamlining development processes.”

The use of AI in game development is a contentious issue, but its use has become widespread across the industry. Nexon’s CEO recently said that “it’s important to assume every company is using AI”, following the release of ARC Raiders, which used AI extensively for audio. Epic boss Tim Sweeney, similarly, has said that it’s safe to assume that most games in the future will be created in part using AI, saying that platforms such as Steam should not flag that a game has been created using the tech.

Other voices are more cautious on the topic; Embracer Group’s new CEO, Phil Rogers, has described the tech as a “powerful” tool, but qualified that by adding that “human authorship is final”. Testronic’s CEO, Sharon Baylay-Bell, has also said that AI is “an accelerant” but it is “not the answer” when looking at the QA, localisation and translation business.

Meanwhile, Revolution Software’s Charles Cecil recently said it was a “mistake” to use AI in the creation of Broken Sword: Reforged.

For the year ending March 30, 2025, Sega reported net sales of ¥428.9 billion ($2.79 billion), a 8.5% dip year-on-year.