Sega says AI will not handle creative work on games

Sega will not hand the creative parts of making games to artificial intelligence, computer systems that learn from large datasets to generate text, images and other material.

The Japanese publisher describes its approach as "very cautious". The message is simple. People design the play.

That position was set out by Tsuyoshi Saito, Sega's senior executive officer and deputy chief business officer, in comments published on 6 October 2026, according to Video Games Chronicle. Saito said the company is not entrusting creative work to AI. Development teams still lead on art, story, music and design.

Sega does use AI elsewhere in the organisation. Its publishing and corporate departments use the technology to work more quickly and to generate ideas for the business side. Publishing here means the work around a game after it is made: planning releases, marketing, sales and store pages. Corporate work covers finance, administration and other office functions.

To keep those uses in bounds, Sega has created a Generative AI Committee. Generative AI is the branch of the technology that produces new material in response to prompts. The committee develops internal tools, writes rules for how staff may use them and carries out compliance checks for listings on Steam. Steam, the PC storefront run by Valve, asks developers to disclose when AI was involved in a game.

The company gave two examples of how the policy works in practice. Generative AI was used in the initial research phase of Crazy Taxi: World Tour, a new entry in its long-running driving series about picking up passengers and racing across town, but it was not used to create the game's art assets. That means early exploration and reference work could involve AI, while the finished artwork seen by players does not. The distinction is deliberate.

The second example is Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis, Sega's online role-playing game that is updated over time with new quests and events. The team uses AI as a productivity tool to support production. The game also includes an in-game conversation function that allows real-time AI responses to player messages. It is a practical feature, not a replacement for writers or artists.

Sega's caution stands out because Japanese law allows broad training of AI. In 2023, Japan confirmed that using datasets to train AI models does not violate copyright law, even for commercial purposes, according to Video Games Chronicle. Sega is still choosing to limit its use. The company says care around rights, quality and player trust matters more than what the law permits.

What makes this stand out is the clarity of the boundary. Many publishers talk about efficiency. Sega has named what is off limits. For players, this means the names in the credits should still mean what they have always meant.