Level-5’s AI Showcase: Faster Production, Player Trust

Author: Reinout te Brake
Published: 2026-09-14T10:39:45+02:00
Updated: 2026-10-17T16:07:22Z
Canonical: https://reinouttebrake.com/stories/level-5-used-ai-to-impress-players-it-made-them-doubt-the-games
Source: https://reinouttebrakecom.wordpress.com/2026/09/14/level-5-used-ai-to-impress-players-it-made-them-doubt-the-games/

Level-5’s use of generative AI in a September 2026 showcase prompted criticism and a response from CEO Akihiro Hino. His statement distinguishes AI-assisted presentation and production from the human-created identity of the studio’s games.

After fans spotted strange details and inconsistencies during its latest presentation, CEO Akihiro Hino confirmed that generative Ai (https://reinouttebrake.com/stories/googles-playground-turns-game-creation-into-a-social-platform) had been used across the show.

The reason?

To make it more spectacular.

Two days later, he apologized.

Hino says the creative core of Level-5’s games, as in story, character design and basic world-building, is still made by humans. Ai is meant to accelerate production, not replace that creativity.

And the ambition is significant.

Level-5 presents AI as a way to accelerate development. That ambition is different from evidence that a particular game has already shipped faster.

That makes this more interesting than another argument about whether Ai-generated art is good or bad. Ai promises studios something they desperately need: speed.

But players cannot see the production pipeline. They only see the result.

If something looks generated, they do not know where Ai ends and human creativity begins. And once that doubt starts with the trailer, it can quickly spread to the product itself.

So Ai may create a new production advantage and a new trust problem at exactly the same time.

Perhaps transparency is becoming part of product quality.

Should game studios tell players exactly where Ai was used?

#AI #Gaming #GameDevelopment #GenerativeAI #Level5

Sources and context

- Akihiro Hino’s statement, reproduced and translated (https://finalweapon.net/2026/09/12/level-5-ceo-akihiro-hino-comments-on-ai-usage-at-vision-2026-ii-broadcast/) (Statement translation)