Capcom Clarifies AI Stance: No AI Assets in Games Like Resident Evil, But Will Use Tech to Boost Development Efficiency

Capcom has officially outlined its position on generative AI in video game production. The renowned Japanese publisher and developer, responsible for hit franchises including Resident Evil, Street Fighter, and Monster Hunter, has confirmed that while it won't incorporate AI-generated assets into its games, it is actively investigating how to leverage the technology to enhance the game development workflow.

On March 23, Capcom released a Q&A from its recent shareholders' meeting, where the company addressed inquiries about its approach to generative AI in game development. "We will not implement assets generated by AI into our games," Capcom stated. "However, we plan to proactively use it as a contributing technology to improve the efficiency and productivity of the game development process. To this end, we are currently exploring ways to implement it in various areas, including graphics, sound, and programming."

As previously covered by Japanese news outlet Game*Spark, Capcom disclosed in January 2025 that it had developed a prototype "idea generation" system utilizing Google Cloud. This system employs generative AI to assist in brainstorming concepts to enrich a game's world, a task that Capcom's technical director Kazuki Abe described as one of the most labor-intensive and time-consuming aspects of game development, since each element must be crafted from the ground up.

Given the vast number of items and intricate background details in immersive environments like those found in the Monster Hunter series, Abe pointed out that "ultimately, we have to come up with hundreds of thousands of unique ideas" for comparison and assessment. Each of the thousands of items in a game demands multiple proposals, complete with text and visual references, to ensure even background objects align with the game's setting.

Capcom's Google Cloud-based system uses generative AI to analyze various game design documents—such as text, images, and spreadsheets—and generate additional ideas based on that input, thereby accelerating the conceptualization phase. The system enables individuals to independently brainstorm and generate ideas using generative AI, and it has reportedly received high praise from Capcom's staff. Abe elaborated that generative AI can produce visual references to communicate ideas to art directors and artists, who are ultimately responsible for creating the final assets.

Thus, it appears Capcom intends to harness generative AI to streamline time-consuming and repetitive tasks in game development, while ensuring that actual game content remains human-crafted.

Generative AI is a trending topic in the gaming industry, and Capcom recently made headlines when Resident Evil Requiem was featured in a tech demo for Nvidia's DLSS 5 AI graphics technology last week. The reveal sparked widespread criticism for giving Resident Evil protagonists Grace and Leon a "photo-realistic" makeover that some deemed soulless and a disservice to the original artists' vision. Nvidia later clarified that DLSS 5 reconstructs games by taking frames and motion vector data from the source material and generating a new image that overlays the original.

A survey published by Game Developer earlier this year indicated that 36% of industry professionals are using GenAI in their daily work. However, the survey also revealed that approximately 80% rely on it for research and brainstorming, with more complex and creative tasks still necessitating human involvement.

Speaking at Gamescom in Bangkok last October, Dead Space creator Glen Schofield contended that AI could help address challenges in a games industry grappling with rising costs and layoffs. "AI isn't here to replace us," Schofield remarked. "It's here to make us faster, better, and more efficient."

Nevertheless, developers must proceed cautiously with AI, as some have faced significant backlash from fans. Last year, Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian was compelled to address a Divinity GenAI controversy, ultimately pledging not to release the game with any AI components. And just this weekend, Crimson Desert developer Pearl Abyss announced it had initiated a "comprehensive" audit of all in-game assets after acknowledging that the use of AI-generated images in the final release should have been disclosed.