Generative AI has rapidly become a routine part of game production in Japan. A new industry survey shared at Tokyo Game Show 2026 found that 85.8% of Japanese game developers now use generative AI in their work, up sharply from 51% just a year earlier.
The figures come from a preview of the 2026 CESA Game Industry Report, presented at Tokyo Game Show. Of those surveyed, 63% said they use generative AI daily, while the remaining 22.8% use it only occasionally.
Popular Now: Only 19,000 people have successfully reserved Valve's Steam Frame, with many still on the waitlistThe 2025 survey, which sampled 54 Japanese companies, found that visual asset creation and game engine development were the most common uses of the technology at the time. Although the 2026 preview hasn't yet broken down current use cases in the same detail, developers cited "improved operational efficiency and productivity" as the most anticipated benefit of using generative AI, followed by shorter development cycles and reduced development and operational costs.
That said, "using generative AI" doesn't necessarily mean placing AI-generated art, dialogue, or other raw content directly into a finished game. The category spans a much wider range of tasks, including programming assistance, documentation, localization, testing, prototyping, and internal ideation. According to the survey, developers said human verification, correction, and supervision remain standard practice, along with restrictions on which tools can be used and an explicit avoidance of shipping generated output without review.
The survey included developers from CESA member companies such as Capcom, Sega, Konami, Level-5, Square Enix, Koei Tecmo, and Sony. In a statement, CESA Executive Director Tsutomu Masuda said the results show generative AI "is being widely and steadily adopted in development environments," while also stressing that the industry needs to address copyright and intellectual property concerns as adoption continues.
A separate Google Cloud-commissioned study of 615 developers across the US, South Korea, Norway, Finland, and Sweden found that 87% were already using AI agents in their workflows, citing similar use cases.
Frequently Asked Questions
Open a question for an answer from TweakTown's coverage of this news, or ask your own below.
Which parts of game development are most commonly being handled with generative AI at Japanese companies?
What kinds of human review or approval do developers still use before AI-generated content goes into a game?
Did the CESA report identify any copyright or intellectual property issues linked to generative AI use?
Which CESA member companies were included in the survey sample?
Have a question that isn't listed here? Ask below, and TweakBot will answer it.
Sony has separately said it views AI as a tool to support PlayStation Studios rather than replace its people. The public sentiment on AI, however, appears much more critical, particularly when it involves opting streamers into gen AI training by default or technologies that turn game characters into AI models.
