Japanese gaming giant Konami has confirmed plans to utilise artificial intelligence for future projects. Announced in a new corporate blog post celebrating video game sales figures, the company confirmed it is looking at using the technology.
In a section titled “creating new user experiences”, Konami announced plans to “continue to take on challenges of the latest innovation”. The company confirmed that this will include utilising “new technologies such as artificial intelligence” as well as “cloud technology, WEB3, NFT, and VR/AR”.
Konami has already attempted to use artificial intelligence with some projects in the past. Last year, the company created AI-generated commentary for the Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship using a cloned voice of popular voice actress and singer Hibiku Yamamura without consent. The situation led to mass backlash in Japan.
It’s not known how much Konami is planning to use AI tools, such as Generative AI, for its commercial video game products. However, the company has already made use of the technology for its Japanese casino games with AI used to help “the casino staff by automating the tasks of player identification and player identity verification, removing opportunity for human error and speeding up the player experience from sit-down to buy-in.”
On a positive note, alongside the mention of AI, Konami did reveal new sales figures for the lifetime sales of Metal Gear Solid. Since the 3D series’ debut in 1998, Konami has sold 65.5 million copies worldwide across all platforms.
Following the popular launch of Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 and the recent Snake Eater remake, the latter of which sold 1 million copies in just three days, the stealth-action series has continued to be one of the biggest hits in Konami’s catalogue.
In a report published by Konami, Metal Gear Solid has sold 65.5 million copies making it the best-selling series for the company. For comparison, Yu-Gi-Oh video games took second place with 32.5 million sales with Silent Hill games selling just past 14 million copies. It’s worth noting that the Silent Hill series released just one year after Metal Gear Solid in 1999.
When it comes to AI in video games, there has been a large amount of pushback from gamers towards the technology. Recently, Black Ops 7 was lambasted for its sloppy AI art calling cards and prestige icons, and Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian Studios was criticised for using AI during pre-production on Divinity.
There’s a considerable amount of pushback against AI for its environmental impact, the fact that its causing hardware prices to skyrocket, and the fact that Generative AI tools are largely based on theft of existing works. This has caused companies such as RuneScape developer Jagex and Warhammer company Games Workshop to internally ban the use of AI to “protect human workers”.
