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The story
Level-5 president Akihiro Hino, after facing accusations that footage shown at a company presentation was made using generative AI, explained the situation on his X (formerly Twitter) account, posting “That’s a relief 😮💨”.
On 5ch, opinions split over the company’s claim that it “used generative AI trained only on in-house material containing no third-party copyrighted works” — specifically, whether that’s even technically possible with current AI technology. There was also plenty of skepticism about the finished quality of the presentation footage itself, and about the newly revealed plan to shrink development time for major titles from five years down to two.
That’s a relief 😮💨
Source: x.com / Original post here
What people said
"In-house material only" isn't actually possible when you're using AI.
Isn't "in-house material only" just not doable with current tech?
How are you gonna prove that?
Can they hand over the model and the prompts?
are telling us to trust the game's quality?
Exactly this.
Like "the reveal trailer's getting panned, but don't worry, trust us."
What wishful arithmetic.
Maybe you're comparing it to a Nintendo Direct, but 100k is honestly impressive.
Seems like they've quietly switched to a policy of not announcing delays, since announcing one just gets them dragged…
No, they announced it normally.
If anything, Decapolice got suspected of using AI too.
If you let "anything goes" with generative AI slide, the IP's value drops to zero.
That's exactly why the bigger companies are so cautious about it.
Meanwhile the AI fanboys on the gaming forums who don't get that are talking big.
Professor Layton and the New World of Steam
Yo-kai Watch 2: Way of the Overlord
Inazuma Eleven: Cross
Yo-kai Watch Puni Puni
Puchi Poyon
Yo-kai Watch: Great Detective Nyanosuke
Snack World Reloaded
Fantasy Life i: The Heavenly Train and Its Final Stop
Holy Horror Mansion
Decapolice
Professor Layton and the Curious Village (Remake)
Inazuma Eleven: Blazing Revolution
What about Inazuma Eleven RE, which is slated for a 2026 release?
I figure it'll flip at some point,
but yeah, better to stay cautious until then.
There's basically zero movement toward actually clearing up copyright with generative AI.
I was hoping things would trend toward a "clean" approach, but so far it's been a letdown.
It's not turning into a tool pros can actually rely on.
Well, that stuff does seem hard to sort out.
Personally I think by the time generative AI gets broadly accepted, those issues will just be swept under the rug anyway.
So I figure we're still a long way off.
Adobe advertises itself as "clean," and for music, Suno switched over to a clean-licensed engine.
Use generative AI for that all you want — it pairs especially well with game programming.
Though amateurs can still badly hurt themselves with it there too, but a big-name studio-tier team should be fine.
Isn't this whole mess happening precisely because that big-name studio's AI video was so sloppy?
With the rise of highly versatile AI, assets, illustrations, and the like are increasingly being output entirely code-based using human-made tools, so AI pairs well with art fields too. UE6 recommending a code-based workflow is the prime example.
It's a sweet spot for companies with no public image for anyone to nitpick.
Can they actually make money doing that, or not?
That's the thing to watch.
Eh, you really buy that?
Doesn't feel any "cleaner" to me.
At best it sounds like a "we'll deal with it if we get sued" kind of policy.
Adobe's been touting "clean" as its selling point from day one.
Suno's engine came about after getting sued and settling — it's now partnered with record labels. Apparently artists get a cut these days.
The real issue is there are plenty of people who feel satisfied just from having used AI, full stop.
It's not half-assed, they just dumped it out raw.
All the talented people already left, so there's nobody left who can flag a raw AI dump like that.
For all their desperate resistance, companies are adopting AI anyway lol
Well, of course they are 🤣
So, are you gonna buy Hino's "game" (scare quotes very much intended)?
Honestly, what they're doing is no different from Palworld.
It's the kind of move a company that makes original content shouldn't pull.
Using AI as a tool to streamline workflow is probably fine, but the moment you use AI somewhere users can actually see it, like a promo video, of course you're going to get slammed for it.
Background and Key Points of This Topic
Level-5 holds flagship IPs like Yo-kai Watch and Professor Layton, yet its development resources are reportedly stretched thin, with as many as 12 titles said to be in simultaneous development — and AI tool use has repeatedly come up in discussions of its plan to shorten development timelines. It was against this backdrop that generative AI use came under suspicion over the quality of this presentation’s footage, prompting Hino himself to explain the situation on X.
The thread split over one specific question: is it technically possible to run generative AI trained solely on in-house material containing no third-party copyrighted works? Neither the “it’s possible” camp nor the skeptics offered concrete evidence, and the debate went nowhere. Worth noting, since the article alone doesn’t make it clear: while rights-cleared generative AI services like Adobe Firefly and Suno do exist, the game industry as a whole still hasn’t settled on a “clean” framework for AI use. Another point that’s easy to conflate — the backlash against AI use in programming is nothing like the backlash against AI use in public-facing material such as promo videos.
*This article was compiled by excerpting and summarizing the 5ch (Hardware/Industry (Console Wars)) thread “[Breaking] Level-5’s Hino explains AI use at the presentation.”
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