Nintendo boss Doug Bowser explains what the company’s discussions about generative artificial intelligence entail. Speaking to CNBC’s Steve Kovach, Bowser responded to the question of how Nintendo considers generative AI as a creative tool with, «I’m always a little careful not to speak on behalf of the developers. I want them to talk about their art and what we do.»
Bowser did note, however, that «As we look at technology, we always want to make sure the technology we may be leveraging, whether it’s to develop our games or whether it’s in our devices, is going to create a better gameplay experience.»
«So that’s a very important part of our decision-making process,» Bowser continued. «Obviously AI is very, you know, very popular right now, it’s being used broadly in a number of different ways… What I would say is if developers choose to use AI, and it is a discussion right now at Nintendo, it’s not the only method of developing games. We still believe that what makes our games special is our developers, their artistic capabilities, their insight into how people play. So there’s always always going to be a human touch, and a human engaging in how we develop and build our games.»
Back in Oct. 2024, legendary developer and Nintendo mainstay Shigeru Miyamoto confirmed that developers at the company had no real interest in embracing the use of generative AI as a whole. «It might seem like we are just going the opposite direction for the sake of going in the opposite direction, but it really is trying to find what makes Nintendo special,» Miyamoto explained at the time. He went on to note that the number of other developers that had embraced the use of generative AI in their games could easily lead to wider and wider swathes of the industry going «in the same direction,» which is «where Nintendo would rather go in a different direction.»
Nintendo fans are currently awaiting the release of the hotly anticipated Switch 2, which has itself been at the center of plenty of controversy in recent days, albeit through no fault of its own. In early April, it was reported that pre-orders for the Switch 2 had been indefinitely delayed in the United States due to the ongoing trade and tariff war between the current administration and the rest of the world at large. Although pre-orders, which had originally been planned to kick off on Apr. 9 in the U.S., have indeed been delayed, the system itself is still slated to arrive on store shelves on Jun. 5.
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