Hideki Hayakawa says game engines already opened the door to new developers, and that people, not AI tools, still decide whether a game is any good.
Konami Digital Entertainment president Hideki Hayakawa says he doubts generative AI will bring a big change to the game market. Writing in Konami's yearly report for investors, he argued that game engines and player creation platforms already made game development easier long before AI came along, and that people and creators still decide whether a game is fun or inventive.
That doesn't mean Konami is avoiding AI. The company says it helps its staff learn new tools, judge the risks and use them safely. It already uses AI for casino ID checks and ran a Master Duel AI project, though it also faced a backlash over AI voice commentary at a Yu-Gi-Oh! event.
For players, the message is that AI should stay behind the scenes in Silent Hill, Metal Gear and Castlevania games, with human teams making the creative calls. Konami's next releases will show whether that holds.
The boss of the company behind Metal Gear Solid and Silent Hill doesn’t think AI is about to transform video games. Hideki Hayakawa, president of Konami Digital Entertainment, says he doubts the technology will bring a significant change to the game market, and that people and creators remain the thing that makes games worth playing.
That matters if you buy Konami games, because it hints at how the next Silent Hill, Metal Gear or Castlevania will be made. Much of the industry talks about generative AI as a way to shrink teams and cut costs. The Konami AI stance is more skeptical: faster production, Hayakawa argues, isn’t the same as better games. So is Konami rejecting AI? Not quite, and the details explain why.
Hayakawa laid out his view in Konami’s Integrated Report, the yearly document it publishes for investors, covering the fiscal year that ended in March 2026. The report is in Japanese, so the English lines circulating online come from translations and may not match his wording exactly.
His first point was about access. People often pitch AI as the tool that will finally let anyone make a game. Hayakawa’s answer is that this already happened. General-purpose game engines, and user-generated content platforms where players build and share their own creations, lowered the barrier to entry well before generative AI turned up.
His second point was about what makes a game good. Even if AI improves production efficiency, he said, the most important factors in making entertaining and inventive games are people and creators. He described the way developers with different backgrounds spark ideas off each other as a chemical reaction, and said that kind of exchange can’t easily be replaced.
The upbeat case for generative AI, software that writes text, code, images or voices on request, is easy to sum up. Supporters say it means lower costs, quicker changes and small teams shipping more games. Hayakawa’s counterpoint is about demand, not supply. Making games more easily doesn’t mean players will want more of them, and it doesn’t make those games more original.
Think of it like music software. Cheap recording tools let millions of people release songs, but they didn’t make hit songs any easier to write. Hayakawa is making the same kind of argument about games: the hard part is the ideas, the taste and the design calls, not the busywork.
That puts Konami at odds with many of its peers, who are far more enthusiastic. It also lines up with what a lot of players are saying. Gamers loudly criticized AI-made calling cards and prestige icons in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, and Larian Studios faced criticism for using AI during pre-production on its next Divinity game. Some companies have gone further: RuneScape maker Jagex and Warhammer firm Games Workshop have banned AI use internally.
None of this means Konami is walking away from the technology. Hayakawa said the company gives creators systematic support so they can understand new tools, judge the risks they bring and apply them safely in development. In an earlier corporate blog post, Konami also listed AI among the new technologies it plans to pursue, alongside cloud services, Web3, NFTs and VR/AR.
The company already has a track record, and it’s mixed:
For players, the practical takeaway is that AI at Konami looks set to stay behind the scenes. Expect it in pipelines, testing and routine jobs, not in the design decisions that shape how a Silent Hill or Metal Gear game feels.
The stakes are high because Konami is having a good run. Metal Gear Solid has sold 65.5 million copies since the 3D series began in 1998, making it the company’s best-selling series. Yu-Gi-Oh! games sit second at 32.5 million, and Silent Hill, which started in 1999, has sold just over 14 million. The Snake Eater remake sold 1 million copies in three days, and Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse, made with Evil Empire and Motion Twin, has just launched to strong reviews.
A publisher on a comeback has a lot to lose by annoying fans with AI art or cloned voices. Hayakawa’s comments read partly as reassurance: the people who made those series popular again are still the ones in charge.
The real test will be the games themselves. If Konami’s upcoming releases credit AI tools, or if players spot AI-made assets, this stance will be judged against it. If not, Konami will have a selling point many rivals lack.
Watch the Master Duel AI project too. Konami said it planned to open positions for outside AI Duel creators on the official Master Duel website, with rules and terms of service set first. That’s the kind of AI Hayakawa seems comfortable with: a tool players opt into, not a replacement for the people building the game.
Konami trains its creators to understand and safely test new tools, including AI, but its president says people and creators remain the most important part of game development.
He is the representative director and president of Konami Digital Entertainment, the company’s video game business.
No. Hayakawa said AI may make production more efficient, but he doubts it will significantly change the game market or replace the creative work of people.
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