There is nothing the gaming community has united on more than a hatred of AI, and that has carried over into the more niche esports scenes as well. The FGC is one of those scenes, fighting back against any sign of AI, like in the Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves’ Season 2 trailer. Maybe the promised and rushed DLC schedule hasn’t left the team with time to make their own trailer, I don’t know.
Well, you won’t have to worry about that with Street Fighter 6. Capcom recently shared a Q&A for investors that included its stance on generative AI. The company stated that they would not use any materials generated by AI within the game.
“However, we plan to actively utilize this technology to improve efficiency and productivity in the game development process,” read a translation. “Therefore, we are currently exploring ways to use it in various areas, such as graphics, sound, and programming.”
Is AI Being Used to Make Street Fighter 6, Or Not?
The FGC initially reacted with confusion. Is there going to be AI stuff in Capcom’s games or not? Well, it basically means there won’t be generative AI assets in the game, like voice lines, character designs, or scenery. But Capcom will continue to use AI in its behind-the-scenes processes to streamline development.
This still received some backlash: hearing about AI automatically makes most gamers’ blood boil. There has been a bit of an AI witch hunt the past year, with gamers outraged at every little background poster and piece of dialogue seemingly made with the help of AI. ARC Raiders recently replaced all of its AI voice lines with real humans amid continued backlash and negative discourse.
“So it’s ‘we won’t use AI for stuff people complain online like artists’ job being done by AI, only for stuff people don’t seem to bother like programmers’ job being replaced by AI,'” wrote one annoyed gamer on X.
Added another: “Buzz wording. Saying they won’t use AI for mats but will use it for graphics… Which is what mats are made from, aka, using AI for their game. Do not let them trick you by fudging words like this around their sentences.”
However, some people were on Capcom’s side, noting that there is nothing wrong with using AI to code faster or render things quicker, making development processes easier. Others explained that Capcom was using generative AI to create assets but would replace them with human-made products once finalized.
“It’s fine to use AI to do away with some tedious shit that developers have been enduring for decades. Saves a ton of time if you don’t need to create certain simple building blocks yourself. Imagine how long it would take to build a house if you needed to find iron to make screws?” one person noted.
My take? I think AI is used in the development of every single game at this point, whether devs admit to it or not. However, not every instance is alarming. It sounds like Capcom doesn’t plan to replace any employees with AI and instead has developers using AI on the more boring aspects of their job so they can do more stuff and do it faster.
Capcom hasn’t had any mass layoffs in the past few years, unlike many other companies in the esports industry. Of course, there are other issues with AI, but I think we can all be relieved that Capcom isn’t adding to the depletion of the gaming and esports industry or pushing AI slop into Street Fighter 6.
Mostly.
Street Fighter 6 Collaborates With AI Virtual Idol
Strangely enough, Street Fighter 6 collaborated with Naevis in 2025, a virtual idol from South Korea created entirely with AI. She was announced as a commentator for Street Fighter 6 in June even though her voice uses samples from various voice actors.
This means a character entirely generated by AI has appeared in Street Fighter 6. However, this doesn’t mean Capcom itself used generative AI to create the content. The game simply features pre-recorded lines from Naevis, whose voice was taken from a group of voice actors and then synthesized.
It was still too close for comfort for many in the FGC, however.
