Konami President Says AI Won't Significantly Change the Games Market, Creators

Konami Digital Entertainment president Hideki Hayakawa doesn't expect generative AI to shake up the games market much. In Konami Group's Integrated Report for the fiscal year ended March 2026, first spotted by Dengeki Online, Hayakawa responds to the popular view that AI will make game development far easier to break into. His argument is that general-purpose game engines and user-generated content have already lowered those barriers, so AI probably won't change much on that front. Hayakawa also made it clear where Konami's priorities lie.

Hideki Hayakawa (machine translated)I don't think the market environment will change drastically. Entry barriers have already been lowered by the advancements of generic game engines and the spread of user-generated content. Even if AI use does lead to improvements in production efficiency, I believe that the most important factors in producing entertaining and innovative video games are people and creators.

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