Capcom has confirmed that it is not using generative AI to create art assets for its games. In an interview with 4Gamer, via Automaton Media, the company’s vice president of game development platform and AI solutions, Shinichi Inoue, has said that the company is more focused on using AI tools for other work. He went on to note that generative AI is simply not capable of producing the kinds of output that Capcom would want to use in its games.
“What we in the entertainment industry consider extremely important in contrast to artificial intelligence is human sensibility,” said Inoue. “Even top-tier AI still cannot match our creators when it comes to sensibility. That’s the current reality. Because of that, concentrating human effort on work requiring this kind of sensibility is more efficient from the standpoint of human capital management, and it’s also important for coexistence with creators.”
That’s not to say that AI tools aren’t being used at Capcom at all, however. Inoue revealed that the company uses Google’s Gemini alongside an in-house AI tool for QA testing. The in-house tool, according to Inoue, “reports its findings to debugging check agents, but rather than leaving everything to humans, another agent first evaluates the reports against the game director’s concept.” The tools are essentially used for what he describes as “routine work”.
“A huge volume of this checking and evaluation work is carried out while humans are asleep,” Inoue explained. “After that, the system screens for issues that are highly likely to be ‘incorrect when compared to the game’s intended concept’ and presents them.”
The company had last discussed the use of generative AI during a Q&A session with investors. At the time, Capcom had said that it was in the process of testing out various AI-based tools to figure out how they could be used throughout the game development pipeline. This testing would include graphics, sound, and programming.
“Our company will not be implementing any AI-generated assets into our video game content,” said Capcom. “On the other hand, going forward, we plan to actively utilize this technology in order to improve efficiency and productivity of game development. That is why we are currently testing out various methods of usage across our departments, including graphics, sound, and programming.”
Interestingly, Capcom was one of the companies in the middle of the controversy surrounding Nvidia’s DLSS 5 showcase from earlier this year. At the time, reports indicated that its employees were quite shocked about Resident Evil Requiem being used for the showcase, noting that Capcom was traditionally “anti-AI”. The report also noted fears about Capcom leadership potentially changing its mind about AI technology and forcing its implementation into games that are currently being developed.
Capcom is far from the only Japanese gaming company to have discussed the use of AI tools for QA work. Square Enix had revealed in its business plans back in November 2025 that it was taking part in a joint research project with the University of Tokyo’s Matsuo-Iwasawa Laboratory to explore the use of AI, with the stated goal of automating 70 percent of the work that goes into quality assurance and debugging tasks.
