Nine of 10 game studios use AI in development, but many stay silent about it
Nearly every major game development studio uses AI tools during production, but a significant portion refuses to disclose this publicly, according to Google Cloud's global director for games Jack Buser.
Buser said studios deploy Google's tools-including Gemini and Nano Banana Pro-to eliminate repetitive, low-value work from the development process. The reluctance to acknowledge AI use stems from the topic's divisive nature among players and industry observers.
"I think what players don't realise is that their favourite games right now were already built with AI," Buser said in an interview with Mobilegamer.biz. "Those games have shipped."
Google surveyed studios at Gamescom last summer. Roughly nine of 10 developers confirmed they use AI tools. Other surveys report adoption rates around 40-50%, a gap Buser attributes entirely to developers' unwillingness to confirm their use publicly.
The disclosure gap matters because player perception may shift once they realize games they already enjoy were built with AI assistance. Buser suggested this awareness could reduce resistance to the technology.
"They'll start to realise this is actually helping me get my favourite games faster," he said. "And I'm also getting more innovation in the industry because there's more room to take risks."
He pointed to a scenario where studios could produce five games instead of waiting seven years for one, accepting that only two will be commercial hits while the other three introduce experimental concepts that wouldn't have existed under traditional timelines.
Capcom's approach to AI-assisted development
Buser cited Capcom as a studio using Google's AI tools to boost productivity. The company uses the technology to generate and filter content for large game worlds, freeing creative staff to focus on high-priority assets.
Capcom faces a specific challenge: populating massive environments with countless details-pebbles, grass, minor objects-requires substantial pre-production labor. The studio now uses Nano Banana and Gemini to rapidly generate design ideas, then curates them with AI assistance to identify the most promising options.
"The art director takes that and then gets the art team going on these items, the AI is already pre-filtered and pre-selected the probably really good looking pebbles on the side of the road," Buser explained.
This workflow redirects creative energy toward principal characters, major enemies, and key scenes-the work that benefits most from human artistic judgment.
Capcom has stated it will not ship assets created entirely by generative AI. The company told shareholders last month it plans to use AI to "improve efficiency and productivity in game development" and is testing various applications across graphics, sound, and programming departments.
For developers looking to understand how studios are integrating these tools, the AI Learning Path for Software Developers covers practical applications of AI in production workflows. Additional context on the underlying technology is available in resources on Generative AI and LLM.
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