Takaya Imamura is a notable name in the world of Nintendo video game development. Imamura’s body of work speaks for itself: graphic designer for the original Star Fox; the character designer for F-Zero: Climax; a supervisor for Super Smash Bros. Brawl; and the art director for The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask.
That is impressive resume is probably why he drew an out-sized online “backlash” over his use of generative AI for a recent experiment. Imamura said fans were surprisingly made about a recent post he shared about “testing out” AI to help develop a video game.
Imamura recently posted a few images of his AI-developed prototype 3D shooter to X, and it sounds like he was particularly impressed with the results. “I’m currently testing out game development using AI,” reads the platform’s auto translation of his comments. “Bouncing ideas back and forth with the AI brings back the feeling of the days when I used to build games while brainstorming–‘let’s try this, let’s try that’–with a programmer. It really is an amazing era we live in.”
おはようございます☀️
今、AIを使ってゲーム制作のテストをしています。AIと壁打ちを繰り返していると、昔プログラマーと「ああしよう、こうしよう」と話しながらゲームを作っていた頃の感覚になってしまった‥すごい時代になったものだ‥ pic.twitter.com/b4lhQGvex1— 今村孝矢 / Takaya Imamura (@ima_1966) September 12, 2026
The wave of criticism that followed seemed to primarily stem from Japanese users on X. “You should not do this at a time when such actions are drawing intense criticism and sparking boycotts overseas,” reads one such reply. “Current AI technology relies on the misappropriation of others’ data. Using it would cause your company’s credibility to plummet—just as happened with Level-5. Please, do not go through with this.”
“I completely understand your point,” Imumara stated in response to the criticism. “However, given my profession, AI is something I simply can’t ignore, so I’m experimenting with it as a test. I’m not a programmer, so I’m genuinely amazed by how AI can fill in that gap and actually help me turn my ideas into a working game.”
While his initial reply seemed to imply that Imumara wishes to “turn [his] ideas into a working game,” he later stated in a follow-up post that he never stated that he plans to release said ideas as a finished product: “It’s incredible… I’m getting slammed this hard just for making a quick game prototype using AI… I never even said a word about finishing or releasing it…”
While a game developer catching heat for using AI to develop a game and then getting surprised by an influx of angry comments is nothing new, it’s interesting that a the majority of Imumara’s detractors seem to be based in Japan.
There’s been an ongoing divide between how different audiences respond to genAI being used in gaming over the past few years, but this kind of negative response from Japanese players makes me the differences are more nuanced than they’ve sometimes appeared.