Speaking during a Q+A session tied to its latest earnings report, the publisher outlined a strategy focused on “efficiency improvements” rather than sweeping AI-led reinvention, directly acknowledging the “strong resistance” developers and fans have toward machine-learning tools in creative work.

Executives said Sega does not intend to chase the industry trend toward ever-larger, AI-heavy production pipelines. Instead, the company plans to identify “appropriate use cases,” with early candidates including support tasks such as streamlining workflow and accelerating internal processes.

Crucially, Sega stressed it would tread carefully around sensitive areas like character creation, a pain point for many players amid fears AI will dilute a studio’s artistic identity or undermine human jobs.

The cautious tone stands out in a year where publishers have split sharply on AI’s role.

Electronic Arts chief Andrew Wilson has declared the technology “the very core” of the company’s future, while Take-Two Interactive’s Strauss Zelnick has dismissed the entire concept as an “oxymoron”.

Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser went further still, comparing generative AI to “mad cow disease” and calling its biggest evangelists “not the most humane or creative people”.

Yet the technology’s momentum in Japan is undeniable.

A Tokyo Game Show survey recently found more than half of Japanese studios already incorporate some form of AI into development.

And when Supertrick Games was hit with backlash this week over extensive generative AI use in Let It Die: Inferno, it underscored exactly the kind of cultural friction Sega hopes to avoid.

For now, Sega’s message is simple: AI may help build its future, but it won’t be allowed to define it.