The comeback that soured

Level-5 came back swinging with Professor Layton, Decapolice and Yo-Kai Watch. Within a week the talk was about the AI in the footage, not the games.

“But seeing this much blatant genAI being used across their games… yeah, this ain't it.”

Fans called it first

Viewers of the digital showcase flagged suspected undisclosed AI, pointing at official trailers where a character's face shifted from one day's version to the next.

Hino confirms and apologises

President and CEO Akihiro Hino posted on X that AI was used inside the event footage, and that he wanted to explain rather than let it sit.

“It appears that some people felt uncomfortable about this, so I deeply apologise”

It was for the spectacle

Hino framed the AI work as an experiment with the latest tools, done to make the presentation flashier than it would otherwise have been.

“It was entirely due to the desire to make the presentation more spectacular”

The games are human-made

Scenarios, character designs and basic settings all come from people, Hino insists. AI is aimed at grunt work like turning original artwork into polygons.

“Please rest assured that no simplistic AI-generated output data is included in the games that are released.”

Five years down to two

The AI trial and error ties into Level-5's goal of cutting development time from five years to two. Krafton, Square Enix and EA are betting on the same tech.

“We will take this as a lesson and carry it forward to the next one”