Nintendo boss says they won’t use Gen AI to make video games

Nintendo boss Shuntaro Furukawa has said the company won’t use generative artificial intelligence in the creation of new games.

During a recent Q&A session with investors, Furukawa was asked about Nintendo’s stance on utilizing AI in the development process.

“Generative AI, which has been a hot topic in recent years, can be more creative, but we also recognise that it has issues with intellectual property rights,” he explained. “We have decades of know-how in creating optimal gaming experiences for our customers, and while we remain flexible in responding to technological developments, we hope to continue to deliver value that is unique to us and cannot be achieved through technology alone.”

He went on to say that “AI-like technology” has been used to “control enemy character movements” over the years, “so game development and AI technology have always been closely related.”

Last year, head of PlayStation’s independent developer initiative said “AI will change the nature of learning for game developers, but in the end development will be more efficient, and more beautiful things will be made by people.”

On the opposite end of things, EA has said it wants to use AI more in the development process. “The holy grail for us is to build bigger, more innovative, more creative, more fun games more quickly so that we can entertain more people around the world on a global basis at a faster rate,” said CEO Andrew Wilson.

EA has 40 years of user data to train AI and there is a  “real hunger” from developers to make use of that, he added. Ubisoft has also experimented with AI, with mixed results.

However, during the same Q&A, Nintendo boss Furukawa revealed that longer game development cycles are “unavoidable”.

“[The process] is more prolonged, more complex, and more advanced,” he continued. “To deal with this, we are continually expanding our development resources and making the necessary investments.”

In other news, Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of the iconic Final Fantasy series of RPGs, has said he has no interest in returning to the games.