Major video game publisher, SEGA, surprised many fans from their comments about AI during a Q&A session for the publication of their Q2 financial results of the 2025-2026 fiscal year on December 3rd. SEGA’s executives were asked about the growing cost trends for game development and their plans on the matter, to which they replied: “Rather than fully following the trend toward the large-scale development, we will also pursue efficiency
improvements, such as leveraging AI. However, as AI adoption can face strong resistance in creative areas such as character creation, we will proceed by carefully assess appropriate use cases, such as streamlining development processes.” This statement has caused mixed responses from the video game community as this follows a trend of video game companies utilizing AI, claiming it’s a useful resource, while simultaneously ignoring the impact that AI is causing, such as the influx of layoffs and utilizing AI during the creative development of a game. SEGA now joins a growing majority of gaming companies implementing AI for different stages of video game development: from Embark Studios using generative AI extensively for their audio production of Arc Raiders to King Staff creating AI tools for workflow purposes, and subsequently, laid off. Regardless, the implementation of AI continues to grow across the industry with fevered debates.

While the debate on AI usage continues, there are companies that are currently trying to mitigate the usage and have the creative processes stay in the hands of humans. According to Video Game Chronicles, an anonymous Japanese game studio that has integrated a live-drawing session in their interview process to mitigate AI art submissions. And per Game Industry Biz, six West European video game unions have banded together to raise awareness of current working conditions and AI usage: “”Game workers everywhere have many problems in common,” the group said in a collective statement provided in multiple languages. “Our jobs are under threat, we are denied a voice in our workplaces, and policies such as ‘return to office’ and tools like generative AI are being forced upon us, even though they degrade our working conditions.” Critics have suggested that the state of the video game industry is tied to the rising usage of AI–profit over people.

SEGA reported net sales for their last fiscal year, March, 30th, 2025, at $2.79 billion.