Capcom to test generative AI to manage “thousands of ideas”

The Osaka-based game developer and publisher known far and wide for games like Monster Hunter and Street Fighter has one of the strongest divisions in gaming this generation. Between titles like Resident Evil: Village and Dragon’s Dogma 2, Capcom releases great titles every year. Now, the company says, they are starting to use generative AI to help them overcome some of the obstacles that come with development.

In an interview with Google Cloud Japan and translated by Automaton MediaCapcom’s chief technology officer Kazuki Abe explains how Capcom is using generative AI not just for gameplay, story, or character design, but for generating ideas. Abe explains that everything that is put into a video game needs to be pushed and thought through.

An example Abe uses is putting a TV into your game, an unexpected feature that most players won’t notice. But artists can’t just take the shape or form of an existing TV and put it into a game without contradicting its original creator. Abe says that a new design and a new logo should be thought of from the beginning, which is how the artificial intelligence helps the developer by choosing the things that are still familiar.

Abe describes this as “one of thousands” of important ideas in game development that, by using AI to find simple solutions, developers can spend less time on these decisions. In particular, Capcom is using the Gemini AI model that is fed with the details and data of the game to create a concept that is internally consistent. That TV problem, for example, cannot come during the Onimusha of the samurai era.

Capcom’s next big release, Monster Hunter Wilds, is coming to store shelves at the end of February. The developer also announced new games in the Okami and Onimusha series.