Following the Level-5 Vision 2026 II: Dreams showcase on September 10th, a wave of criticism emerged: fans discovered suspicious visual errors in the trailers shown for Professor Layton and the Curious Village Remake and Yo-kai Watch 2: Haunted Domain, which strongly resembled generative AI. Now, Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino has commented on the situation – openly admitting to the use of AI tools.
What did Level-5 say about the AI use in the trailers?
Hino explained that AI was used to create a particularly striking and “flashy” presentation, and he explicitly apologized for making fans feel uncomfortable. At the same time, the studio emphasized that not every error criticized as AI-generated was actually due to AI – some of the objected artwork errors were simply due to human oversight.
Will the affected trailers be completely re-produced now?
Level-5 announced that corrected versions of the trailers would be re-uploaded during the ongoing Tokyo Game Show (starting September 17th). Therefore, it's not a complete relaunch of the advertising campaign, but rather targeted corrections to the criticized scenes.
Why is this accusation particularly hard-hitting for Level-5?
The timing is particularly unfortunate: the Vision 2026 show took place just one day after the official announcement of Professor Layton and the New World of Steam during Nintendo Direct – a moment when the community's anticipation should have been the focus. Instead, the AI debate dominated coverage for days. This case joins a growing number of controversies where publishers have been sharply criticized for using generative AI in marketing materials – the industry is currently under particularly close scrutiny from the community regarding AI transparency. For players, the correction initially changes nothing about the announced games themselves, but it does affect trust in the studio's marketing communication.
Source: IGN
How do you view the use of AI in game trailers – a reasonable tool or a breach of trust with the community? Let us know in the comments!
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