All right, I want to talk about the Professor Layton situation.

I’ve mentioned a few times now how I lost my enthusiasm for Professor Layton and the New World of Steam because of Level-5 going all-in on generative AI.

For quite a while, I kept saying that I would wait to see if any AI was used in the game before deciding if I would buy it or not.

Now, here we are. After a Level-5 showcase that included AI in its presentation, Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino issued a statement addressing fans’ reactions to the AI-heavy showcase, saying they only use AI for efficiency, and claiming it will reduce development times. As you can imagine, this didn’t go over well, especially when they released an AI-generated promotional picture for their TGS booth a few days later.

Shortly after that, Level-5 issued another statement mainly denying that the powerlines in the Yo-kai Watch 2 remake trailer were AI-generated and claiming it was human error instead.

There is also a single statement near the end saying AI wasn’t used in Professor Layton and the New World of Steam.

So that should be what I was looking for. Now I can confidently go ahead and play the new Professor Layton game, right? Wrong! Because I don’t trust them.

I didn’t realize it until that statement came out, but they’ve been so pro-AI that I simply can’t trust their word about this. Some people are already concerned about some of the backgrounds in the game. Others have said we’ll know once the Steam page is up, but Inazuma Eleven doesn’t have an AI disclosure and we know they used AI during that game’s development. On top of that, it feels questionable to support the studio while they’re going in this direction.

In short, despite the recent statement, I still can’t feel good about getting Professor Layton and the New World of Steam. But what about you? How do you feel about it?