Level-5 president and CEO Akihiro Hino has taken to X to address the criticism levelled on the company for its Level 5 Vision event where it was noticed that generative AI was used during the presentation. The event featured games from beloved series such as Professor Layton and Yo-Kai Watch. Here’s the lengthy statement that Mr. Hino wrote on X via machine translation:
“It seems that some people have become concerned about the content of the project because AI was used in some of the video footage shown during the event, so I’d like to explain the situation.
Quite simply, we wanted to make the presentation more spectacular, and as part of an experiment, we incorporated some of the latest AI technology into the production process. However, it appears that this made some people uncomfortable, and for that, I sincerely apologise.
That said, at our company, everything that contributes to the appeal and individuality of our released games—including the scenarios, character designs, and fundamental settings—is created entirely by people.
The AI-driven efficiency improvements we are pursuing are primarily focused on digitising creative work that has already been created by humans. For example, using AI to accurately convert original artwork into polygons for 3D models. There will be no careless or unrefined AI-generated output incorporated into our released games, so please rest assured.
In fact, the time saved through AI-assisted efficiency improvements is allowing our creators to spend more time on the truly creative aspects of development. As a result, I believe the finished products are reaching a level that will satisfy you even more than before.
Ultimately, we are currently experimenting and working hard toward a plan to reduce the development time for major titles from around five years to just two.
However, I cannot deny that this time we made extensive use of AI because we wanted to deliver a presentation that was easy to understand and visually spectacular.
We will take this experience as a lesson and use it to improve going forward. We hope you’ll look forward to Level-5’s next presentation.”
People are getting so pissy over AI use..
Pretty sure the reason is because lots of people didn’t want to buy RAM and storage or maybe even a GPU when they had plenty of time to do so before prices went nuts. DDR5 was pretty cheap for at least a year for nice 32-64GB kits.
Oh well, ya snooze ya lose, that’s what happens when people think they only need to upgrade their PC once every decade.. Lmao.
I disagree with you. There was no way to know that RAM, SSD, and other hardware prices would skyrocket. Hardware manufacturers also shouldn’t prioritize AI companies over end consumers without even making an announcement first. As I said, there was no way to know that manufacturers would do so.
Also, many people just couldn’t buy PC parts before, including myself. It is ironic that when I and others finally could, the prices got insanely high.
You think you save more when upgrading every couple years vs every decade??
Think your math is off
I’m 100% against AI as a substitute for human creativity, and in some regard I’m glad of the backlash against Level-5 for this but there is one point of clarity I want to make which is that the games that Level-5 have actually released of late are actually really good, and Professor Layton looks like it too may also be good, at least to my eye.
Most of the egregious AI usage appears to be in the marketing videos which is incredibly jarring but far less important than the actual product itself. So let’s hope they’ve learned their lesson but let’s also give them a chance because I’d rather avoid bandwagoning on a publisher who is actually making good games, there are better targets. Of course if Layton arrives and feels like AI slop, then it’s a different matter.
Hmm, Level-5 CEO just clarified above:
”For example, using AI to accurately convert original artwork into polygons for 3D models. There will be no careless or unrefined AI-generated output incorporated into our released games, so please rest assured.”
They only use AI to automate slow and technical processes, not creative ones, as stated here:
”In fact, the time saved through AI-assisted efficiency improvements is allowing our creators to spend more time on the truly creative aspects of development. As a result, I believe the finished products are reaching a level that will satisfy you even more than before.”
He even says they have a plan to decrease development time from 5 years to 2 thanks to AI assistance.
I defend using AI to help with difficult and sluggish processes, as it makes development less stressful. However, I also support using AI to aid the creative process, such as when artists want to refine their work more or overcome creative block.
Level-5 isn’t even using AI for that, so you can rest assured.
Good. Now make a good game for once.