During June 7th’s Xbox Games Showcase, fans were treated to a reveal trailer for the first new Crazy Taxi game to hit consoles in years. The franchise, which began as an arcade game back in 1999, hasn’t had a new main series entry since Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller for the original Xbox. So, Crazy Taxi lovers were initially thrilled to see the brand-new reveal trailer. However, those rushing to Steam to add the game to their wishlists quickly noticed a potential downside.
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The trailer is infused with nostalgia for gamers who loved the original, and it landed exactly how SEGA might have hoped. However, the Steam page includes an AI-generated Content Disclosure, confirming that generative AI was used during the development of Crazy Taxi: World Tour. The use of generative AI in creative spaces remains pretty controversial, and many gamers are quick to avoid any game that wasn’t made entirely through human creativity. So, the hype is taking a hit for many as gamers realize that the new Crazy Taxi isn’t just a return to console for the franchise, but its first confirmed entry to use generative AI, as well.
SEGA Statement Confirms Generative AI Usage for New Crazy Taxi Game
Shortly after the game was revealed, the Steam page for Crazy Taxi: World Tour went live. The platform requires a disclosure when generative AI is used to make a game, and SEGA has followed the rules by including one. For some, the up-front honesty may go a long way, even if the use of generative AI is controversial. After all, quite a few recent games have tried to conceal their AI use until getting called out by fans. SEGA, on the other hand, has made its statement up front.
Here’s the full statement from Steam, which lays out how SEGA claims AI was used in the making of Crazy Taxi: World Tour:
“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. 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.”
Like most AI disclosure statements, this is relatively vague. It does, however, claim that AI was used as a “support.” As fans have already begun to express concerns about the vague language, SEGA has responded to Game Informer’s request for more information with a similar statement that doesn’t clarify too much. However, the statement does clarify that “Generative AI was used to support our teams during the development of background assets.” SEGA claims those assets were reviewed by the development team, but it does sound like at least some in-game assets will indeed be AI-generated.
For some fans, the use of generative AI in video games is a dealbreaker. As one Reddit user in the r/CrazyTaxi subreddit puts it, “It uses Gen AI. Thanks for nothing SEGA.” Others note they’ll just go back to playing the older games instead, rather than support something that was made with AI. That said, there are plenty of gamers who think that some AI use is probably taking place with most game development these days and appreciate that SEGA is being up front about it. Until they see more from the game and can get a better sense of just how much AI was actually used for in-game assets, many fans may well hold their judgment about Crazy Taxi: World Tour.
Crazy Taxi: World Tour is currently set to release in 2027 for PC via Steam, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2.
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