Level-5 AI media incident — Sep 2026

Following the release of its “VISION 2026 II: Dreams” presentation on September 10, 2026, Japanese game developer Level-5 faced intense public scrutiny. Fans and social media users identified visual inconsistencies and artifacts in trailers for titles like Yokai Watch 2: Haunted Domain and Professor Layton and the New World of Steam, prompting accusations that the studio was relying on generative AI, or “AI slop,” for its marketing materials.

What happened

The controversy began when viewers noticed discrepancies between the studio’s presentation and a Nintendo Direct trailer released just one day prior. Commenters pointed to specific background elements—such as vending machines, gutters, and telephone lines—that exhibited traits commonly associated with generative AI, including unnatural details and inconsistencies. Additionally, changes to a character’s face model between the two trailers fueled further speculation.

CEO Akihiro Hino initially responded by admitting the studio had experimented with AI processing to make the presentation “flashy” while attempting to shorten development cycles. However, this explanation failed to quell the backlash, as fans expressed concerns regarding the ethical implications of AI training data and the potential for a decline in creative quality. In a subsequent statement on September 17, Level-5 apologized for the resulting distrust. The studio clarified that while AI was used to improve internal efficiency, no AI-generated data was used within the games themselves. Level-5 attributed several controversial visual elements to human error or intentional artistic simplification, specifically citing a hand-drawn reference photo for the telephone lines. To address the concerns, the studio vowed to clean up the identified errors and committed to limiting future AI usage to internal efficiency tasks, pledging to avoid its direct application in public-facing promotional videos.