Capcom is using generative AI to “streamline game development”

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Resident Evil developer Capcom has revealed that it’s using generative AI to generate ideas for ‘hundreds of thousands’ of in-game objects.


In response to the rising cost of videogame development, Japanese studio Capcom has begun using generative AI to assist in the design of in-game assets. By adding the technology to its workflow, the company says it can “come up with hundreds of thousands of ideas” with relative ease.

This is according to Kazuki Abe, Capcom’s technical director and a veteran of such games as Monster Hunter: World and Exoprimal – both expansive multiplayer titles whose virtual landscapes require the creation of a huge number of 3D models.

In what is essentially a testimonial, Abe talked to Google for an interview published on its Japanese website (thanks, IGN), and explained how the tech giant’s software is being used in Capcom’s current projects.

“One of the most time-consuming and labour-intensive aspects of game development is coming up with ideas for creating the game’s worldview,” Abe said (as translated by Google). “For example, if there is a television in the game space, we can’t just use a real-life product. We have to come up with our own ideas for the shape and manufacturer’s logo.”

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Abe and his team therefore came up with a system which could interpret the developers’ assorted design documents, spreadsheets and other materials, and turn them into images. Abe says that his system, which he developed using Vertex AI, is still being trialled, but adds, “The cycle of idea generation and brainstorming that was previously done by multiple people can now be done by an individual.”

From a worker’s perspective, herein lies the source of concern. Generative AI may save costs by reducing the number of people a company like Capcom has to employ, but those displaced workers then need to seek employment elsewhere. Multiply that by an entire industry adopting AI, and you have an awful lot of artists and designers fighting for a smaller pool of jobs.

Nevertheless, AI’s direction of travel has now been established. Blizzard revealed that it had developed an in-house image-generation tool in 2023. Publishing giant EA said last September that AI was “at the very core of its business.”

Generative AI can be criticised on ecological grounds for the amount of energy and water it consumes. It can be criticised on ethical and legal grounds, given that it relies on the theft of writers’ and artists’ work for its output. And so on. Whatever the criticisms, AI’s industry adoption continues apace.

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