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PayPalThe expansion of generative AI continues with Cygames recently announcing the formation of an AI studio. Fans weren't happy, and now Cygames have apologised.
Cygames made the likes of Umamusume, Granblue Fantasy and other games.
Announced in a post on January 9th written in Japanese on their official site, they mentioned forming "Cygames AI Studio". No guessing needed on what they were hoping to do with it. Seems they weren't expecting as much backlash as they received though, and so they've now apologised for it.
The post is only available via X/Twitter, here's what they put up:
To all our Cygames fans and supporters,
Over the past few days, we've received numerous comments expressing anger and disappointment from many of you. This was because we released a simplified announcement in Japanese concerning the founding of Cygames AI Studio, Inc., without addressing any of the current problems and social debates surrounding generative AI. We sincerely apologize for the concern we've caused.
We would like to take this opportunity to state that art produced from generative AI isn't used in our products. Furthermore, we won't implement generative AI into our products without prior notice. We hold in the highest regard those who love games, as well as the dignity, passion, and heart of the creators and artists who act as the architects of gaming culture. The art for all current Cygames games and other products is crafted from the technical know-how and manual work of our many staff members.
Once again, we deeply apologize for causing our beloved fans much grief and anxiety. We at Cygames will continue to honor creators, as well as champion the free expression of people, and, in doing so, will continue to strive to be the best in entertainment.
Thank you for your continued support.
Noticably, this is not actually them walking it back. They clearly still plan to go ahead with it, we'll just be given "prior notice" when they decide to stick it into their games. Then again, whenever they begin using it, perhaps they'll hope their fans will have forgotten about this.
Oh dear. There's going to be a lot more of all this ahead with all sorts of stories about generative AI in video games.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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You can also find comments for this article on social media: 
We want Passion over Profits.
To know someone, somewhere actually cared about the 'product' they were shipping and not just sales figures. Ai has no soul, and it's an insult to the people spending their hard earned cash on something that they want to collectively share with the Artists who put their heart and soul into it.
If Ai has a soul then it's a stolen one.
mr-victory 3 hours ago
(after clicking some links)
hmm they have 4 job listings:
* AI Specialist (image generation)
* Reinforcement Learning Engineer (Game Automatic Play Balance Optimization)
* Language Model Engineer
* Potential Diffusion Model Engineer
Cygames Al Studio Inc.
My interpretation is that they are trying to create in house machine learning and generative AI tools like how large studios have their in house engines. Trying to be optimistic, they may attempt to solve ethical issues caused by usage of 3rd party art in training of publicly available (off the shelf) models by developing and using their own models. Time will tell.
Last edited by mr-victory on 14 Jan 2026 at 4:19 pm UTC
I've seen some enthusiasm for GenAI in the general public, but (and maybe I'm in a bubble of my own making now), most people I speak to simply ridicule it, or more often, actively revile it.
(for being based on plagiarism, for its impact on the environment, for job losses, for talking kids/adults into hurting/killing themselves, for kick-starting a new nuclear age, for bumping the price of gaming tech through the roof, for impacting sites by scraping them constantly, for being obnoxiously rammed into people's faces over and over again while being demonstrably worse than simpler or even existing alternatives... take your pick and let me know if I've missed anything)
Fair to say I'll never buy from Cygames now. Here's their creator page on Steam if you want to "ignore publisher".
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/43153491
And of course they posted on Twitter. Looking at some of their content, maybe that's the best place for them.
Quoting: scaineI've seen some enthusiasm for GenAI in the general public, but (and maybe I'm in a bubble of my own making now), most people I speak to simply ridicule it, or more often, actively revile it.The vast majority of people do not care.
Quoting: minidouThat's not my experience. Working in an enterprise of nearly 2000 staff, there are plenty of opinions and cooler-chat about GenAI and as I say, most people revile it. Maybe you meant the general public... but again, I see mostly negativity on various social media platforms.Quoting: scaineI've seen some enthusiasm for GenAI in the general public, but (and maybe I'm in a bubble of my own making now), most people I speak to simply ridicule it, or more often, actively revile it.The vast majority of people do not care.
Surveys tend to agree. https://civiqs.com/results/ai_impact
Quoting: scaineI've seen some enthusiasm for GenAI in the general public, but (and maybe I'm in a bubble of my own making now), most people I speak to simply ridicule it, or more often, actively revile it.There are some people that are quite enthusiastic. In 2024 I met an older man at the end of a guided tour at the zoo and he said that every time he was learning a new tune for whatever instrument that he played he questioned ChatGPT about the specifics of said tune. In hindsight I'd like to know the accuracy of the “information” provided by these queries.
I'm convinced that the real applications of AI that provide a benefit to society are limited to the natural sciences – especially biology – and environmental research where automatic classification is a huge boost in efficiency like trying to determine which Lemurs are scattered in the remaining disconnected forests on Madagascar to prioritize reforestation or to track behavioural changes in animal populations caused by changes in the environment.
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I think you've missed what the Daily Show showed with the “circle” animation – the (incredibly dangerous) artificial inflation of the financial system.
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Edit: I forgot to mention that the Cygames post reminds me of Sir Humphrey from Yes Minister.
Last edited by Klaas on 14 Jan 2026 at 6:08 pm UTC
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