I was really stoked for a new Crazy Taxi game. Sega’s been teasing it for a while now, so I knew it was coming, but the reveal today was still exciting. I love the silly energy of Crazy Taxi, the ridiculous yet fun overuse of The Offspring, and crashing into stuff for no reason. But I guess I’m not playing Crazy Taxi: World Tour now, because for some reason Sega used generative AI to make it.
This is according to a disclosure on the Steam page for World Tour, which just went live today:
At SEGA Corporation, we utilize generative AI as a support tool for developers, aiming to provide better content to our users and enable developers to focus more on creative tasks.
We have used such generative AI support tools during development of Crazy Taxi: World Tour. No AI was used in reference to the performers in the game.
I…what do you need generative AI for, man? It’s Crazy Taxi! You literally made one of these in the late ’90s with zero generative AI, and it was great! We have better technology now that’s not generative AI that you can use! What are you even generating? Buildings? Soda cans? Signs? Guys? None of that requires generative AI! You can just…hire someone to make those things!
A number of other major studios have admitted to using generative AI recently, but this feels different. Most of the examples we’ve seen have been companies using generative AI in concepting and then frantically apologizing when some AI art made it into the final product, or trying to sneak it in without people noticing (Call of Duty), or else they used it for localization, or (in the case of The Finals) to avoid paying actors to voice hundreds of lines.
Not to say any of those uses should be downplayed, but this is one of the first times we’ve seen a big AAA game dev just wholesale admit it’s using generative AI to make in-game assets without apology. Never mind that it kills creativity and wrecks the environment. We gotta make taxis more quickly, I guess. Or whatever: the disclosure is so vague that one could assume anything from a single asset being made with AI to most of the game. I guess at least we know The Offspring didn’t use AI, based on the mention of the performers.
Update 4:10pm ET: In a statement provided by PR to Game Informer, Sega elaborated a bit further on what it’s using generative AI for. Specifically, per its statement: “the development of background assets for ”Crazy Taxi: World Tour”. Assets generated were still subject to review by the development team.”
That…does not improve matters!
Original story continues:
Whelp, so long then, Crazy Taxi. Hate to watch you drive off into the sunset, but I prefer my games to be made by human beings, thanks.