Ah cool, that reboot of 90s arcade classic Crazy Taxi Sega have been teasing for a little while, I thought during an otherwise rather meh Xbox showcase yesterday. Ah bollocks, I subsequently thought upon logging on this morning and seeing that Sega have disclosed their use of generative AI as part of Crazy Taxi: World Tour's development.
Yep, a revamp of a series that harks back to a time long before genAI was even a glint in the eye of some greedy exec has leant on the tech to bring its Offspring-soundtracked dashes through the streets of San Fran to life. "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," the company wrote in an AI generated content disclosure notice tacked to World Tour's Steam page. "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."
Sega got a tiny bit more specific about their AI use in a statement to Game Informer, revealing that "generative AI was used to support our teams during the development of background assets for Crazy Taxi: World Tour". They insisted that the "assets generated were still subject to review by the development team" and again stressed that no AI was used when it comes to voice performances.
Sigh. If you're looking to support some developers making a Crazy Taxi game, Sega, you could always solve that issue the way it would've been back when the original Crazy Taxi was released: by hiring more Crazy Taxi developers. You'd not have to worry about how to carefully word AI disclosures or how the tech damages the environment. You'd not have to insist that you're using it for the good of players and developers, rather than in a cynical attempt to cut costs and corners in a way that could well create more work on the whole for the devs forced to sift through and review AI-generated assets to ensure they aren't noticeably dogshit.
The Crazy Taxi games put out without the use of genAI were good. So good that they're beloved enough to make this reboot something you've deemed financially worthwhile. I sincerely doubt having generated some billboards, buildings, or beach umbrellas will make for a better game as you insist it will. Instead, if anything it'll be a clamp on Crazy Taxi: World Tour's retro wheels. It's hard to convince people you've recaptured the old magic when modern headaches are front and centre. That mysterious "super game" died for this?