The announcement of a new Crazy Taxi game during the Xbox Summer Showcase made waves for how excited longtime fans were to not only see an updated version of the iconic arcade passenger-delivery game. But following the announcement, a Steam page listing that disclosed generative AI use stirred up controversy. During a recent hands-off gameplay demonstration, I had the chance to seek clarification from series creator and lead producer on Crazy Taxi: World Tour, Kenji Kanno.
For reference, here is what the Steam page said regarding the Crazy Taxi: World Tour team’s use of AI:
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.
The Steam listing provided a vague explanation. However, upon reaching out to a Sega spokesperson yesterday, they provided the following expanded version of the statement above:
At SEGA Corporation, generative AI is available as an optional support tool for developers, enabling our teams to focus more on creative tasks and ultimately focus on what matters most: delivering better games to our consumers.
Generative AI was used to support our teams during the development of background assets for ”Crazy Taxi: World Tour”. Assets generated were still subject to review by the development team.
No AI was used in reference to the performers in the game.
With the clarification from the spokesperson still remaining too vague for my liking, I went straight to the lead producer of the upcoming revival of the series to get further clarification on the development team’s use of AI, in particular, generative AI. Here’s what Kanno had to say:
“First, I think I can be a little bit more specific or clear on how we use the generative AI. So, it’s like one small part of the creative process. So, to get a little bit more detailed about our design process, as mentioned earlier, it’s World Tour, and we have five different countries. I can’t say which countries there are today, but our artists, our designers, they actually went to the actual locations, and they took references, and based on that, they came up with the designs. And generally, AI is just one part of that, and is used as a hint or part of the ideation. I think the statement on the Steam page was quite vague, so to make things a bit more clear – and this is a sentiment that both me and our team of talented artist and designers back in Japan share – is that we want to create things ourselves and deliver that as a great experience for our customers. So rest assured, everything in the final product is going to be original.”
Despite the controversy surrounding AI use in the development of Crazy Taxi: World Tour, the game does look like a fun and faithful modernization of the beloved franchise with which many fell in love during the Dreamcast era. Crazy Taxi: World Tour is set to arrive on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2, and PC in 2027.