Earlier today, Capcom published its summary of a February 2026 online investor information session. Asked during the briefing to detail its plans for AI usage in game development, Capcom said it won’t use game assets generated by AI, but intends to “actively” use generative AI to improve its game development workflows.
“We will not incorporate assets generated by AI into our game content,” Capcom said in its investor Q&A summary (via machine translation). “However, we do intend to actively utilize such technologies to enhance efficiency and boost productivity within our game development processes.”
Capcom said it is “currently evaluating potential applications” of generative AI technologies “across various disciplines,” including graphics, sound, and programming.
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While it’s tempting to read the timing of the company’s AI statement as an attempt to distance itself from Nvidia’s DLSS 5 reveal—widely panned for its turning the protagonists of Capcom’s Resident Evil Requiem into unrecognizable, yassified ghouls through the power of generative AI—the session took place on February 16, a full month before DLSS 5’s unveiling. Still, the publication of the session summary is likely a welcome reassurance to investors who might’ve gotten anxious after seeing the intensity of contempt that Grace’s AI beautification produced.
And though I’m glad to have the frightful notion of AI-generated Monster Hunter creatures dispelled—for now—Capcom didn’t specify where it draws its line between efficiency enhancement and asset implementation when it comes to gen-AI use.
We’ve seen how quickly defining generative AI use becomes a complicated problem, especially if the company is using generative technology in graphics and sound production. Would Capcom approve if its animators use machine learning to streamline transitional movements between motion-captured animations? What if its artists used AI-generated images as initial concepts that were then reworked into final assets?
The former is pretty inoffensive; the latter—well, Capcom is already doing something similar. Previously reported by GameSpark (via IGN), Capcom technical director Kazuki Abe explained in January 2025 how the company had created a Google Cloud-based technology to generate initial visual references to ease the burden of producing concept illustrations for the “hundreds of thousands of ideas” necessary to fill out a game’s world.
It’s been a common defense offered by game companies using generative AI in art production, but it hasn’t spared studios from backlash. Pearl Abyss provided a similar rationale over the weekend when players started noticing AI art scattered throughout Crimson Desert, claiming that its art teams use generated assets “as part of early-stage iteration using experimental AI generative tools” to help “rapidly explore tone and atmosphere in the earlier phases of production.”
Pearl Abyss issued an apology, and insisted that “our intention has always been for any such assets to be replaced.” If nobody had noticed, we can only guess whether they would be.
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