Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa Reveals Company’s Stance on AI

Jorge Arenas |

Jul 10, 2024

Nintendo AI — Nintendo's Shuntaro Furukawa speaks at News Conference, Marufuku Youtube

It seems that, unlike such industry rivals as Xbox and Ubisoft Nintendo has no plans to ride the generative AI train.

Mario and Luigi (Kevin Z. Afghani) are launched into the sky in Mario & Luigi: Brothership (2024), Nintendo

Though these competitors are hoping to integrate elements of this fast-evolving technology, Nintendo’s President Shuntaro Furukawa, during a Q&A with investors, made clear that in its current state, AI isn’t in a place to go past its traditional roles.

First, he touched upon AI’s long history within the gaming industry: “In the game industry, AI-like technology has long been used to control enemy character movements, so game development and AI technology have always been closely related.”

As President Shuntaro pointed out, AI in gaming has been around for decades. According to Wikipedia, this relationship goes back to the 1950s with the creation of the game Nim, which was published in 1952 and is hailed as one of the first use cases of AI in the infant video game ecosystem.

Matches set up in rows for a game of Nim. Players take turns to choose a row and remove any number of matches from it, Wikimedia Commons

Moving on, President Shuntaro said due to recent advancements in generative AI, it has become a hot topic, though one with drawbacks: “Generative AI, which has been a hot topic in recent years, can be more creative, but we also recognize that it has issues with intellectual property rights.”

Finally, his last remark seems to put a nail in the coffin that Nintendo will use generative AI: “We have decades of know-how in creating optimal gaming experiences for our customers, and while we remain flexible in responding to technological developments, we hope to continue to deliver value that is unique to us and cannot be achieved through technology alone.”

Mario defends Goombella from a Goomba in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (2024), Nintendo

For those who work in the industry, these comments might seem like a highlight in a space that has experienced significant layoffs in the last two years. Matthew Ball, an angel investor and advisor made this point on X back in June.

1/ After only 5.5 months, the video game industry has set a tragic new record for in-year layoffs (10,900 versus the prior record of 10,500 in 2023, and the record before that, 8,500 in 2022).

These layoffs span games that were canceled and scaled back, as well as studios that… pic.twitter.com/M07ezvGEuc
— Matthew Ball (@ballmatthew) June 12, 2024

In another follow-up, he pointed to a reduction in consumer spending as a likely reason:

5/ Over the last few years, the gaming industry has experienced material annual declines in consumer spending:
• US is ↓$2.4B (-4%) since 2021
• International is ↓$3.2B (-2%) since 2021

In real terms (i.e. after inflation), the annual declines are steeper
• US is ↓$9.6B… pic.twitter.com/rL7b77kFvZ
— Matthew Ball (@ballmatthew) June 12, 2024

So President Furukawa’s remarks seem to show that Nintendo wants to be committed to maintaining its creative integrity and respecting IP laws; even in a market that isn’t quite friendly to gaming studios.

NEXT: Nintendo Announces Simple Plan To Fight Switch Successor Scalpers, Promises To “Produce A Sufficient Number To Meet Customer Demands”