Almost every major game studio uses AI, but some don’t disclose it

Virtually every major game development studio now uses AI in some capacity, but a significant number are hesitant to admit it publicly, according to a Google executive. Jack Buser, Google Cloud’s global director for games, told Mobilegamer.biz that while AI-powered tools are widely adopted to streamline development, many studios fear backlash from players and keep their usage under wraps.

Buser explained that Google’s own AI tools, such as Gemini and Nano Banana Pro, help developers eliminate “the drudgery and repetitive, low value work” involved in game creation. Yet despite their prevalence, the controversial nature of AI in gaming leads many studios to stay silent. “I think what players don’t realise is that their favourite games right now were already built with AI,” Buser claimed. “Those games have shipped. We did a survey around Gamescom last summer with studios all over the world. Roughly nine out of 10 game developers told us ‘yeah, we’re using it’.”

He contrasted this with other surveys that report only 40-50% usage, attributing the discrepancy to developers’ unwillingness to disclose their AI involvement. “That gap is basically the developers’ willingness to tell you whether the fact of the matter is it’s being used,” Buser said.

Buser suggested that once players understand AI has already helped create games they love, they may become more accepting. “They’ll start to realise this is actually helping me get my favourite games faster,” he said. “And I’m also getting more innovation in the industry because there’s more room to take risks, and now it’s not seven years waiting for one game, but that studio can make five games, and maybe they understand that only two of those five games will be a hit, but that’s okay because these three other games are really interesting and cool and would have never been made with the old model. Once that stuff starts happening, and it’s already happening now, you’ll start to see sentiment change.”

Buser also highlighted Capcom as a studio using Google’s AI tools to handle less critical assets, freeing up creative teams for core elements. “One of the big problems that they have is they’re building these massive worlds and they’ve got to fill it with content,” he said. “Just coming up with all the ideas for every pebble by the side of the road, every blade of grass, and having all those art reviews, the manual labour just starts piling up in pre production.”

He explained that Capcom uses Nano Banana and Gemini to generate countless ideas, then curates them with AI assistance. “Of these thousands of things, here are the ones that are probably most interesting to you as the art director. And then the art director takes that and then gets the art team going on these items, the AI is already pre-filtered and pre-selected the probably really good looking pebbles on the side of the road – and then all of their creative energy gets focused towards the high value creative tasks – the main character, the big enemies, the main scene, objects, that kind of stuff.”

Notably, Capcom has never denied using AI in development but has stated it “will not be implementing any assets” created with generative AI into its games. The company told shareholders last month that it plans to use AI to “improve efficiency and productivity in game development,” adding: “That is why we are currently testing out various methods of usage across our departments, including graphics, sound, and programming.”