Sony and Bandai Namco are testing generative AI — and PlayStation is already all-in
Sony is making its AI intentions very clear: this is not just a side experiment anymore.
During its latest earnings and corporate strategy presentation, Sony revealed that it is working with Bandai Namco Holdings Inc. on a collaborative pilot project around generative AI and future video production. Bandai Namco Holdings is the parent company of Bandai Namco Entertainment, so of course gamers will immediately start wondering what this means for games, anime-style production pipelines, trailers, cutscenes, and all the content around major IP.
Sony President and CEO Hiroki Totoki framed AI as a tool that can boost human creativity rather than replace the people behind the work. That is the key message Sony wants everyone to hear right now: AI is supposed to support creators, not push them out.
The actual Bandai Namco project still sounds quite broad. Sony did not give a specific game, anime, trailer, or production example. What Totoki did say is that the pilot has shown major improvements in speed and productivity per person. He also admitted one of the big problems with generative AI for professional use: keeping output consistent and controllable.
That point matters a lot. In entertainment, especially games and anime-adjacent production, “almost right” is not good enough. Character faces, animation style, costumes, branding, lore details — fans notice everything. Malaysian and SEA fans are especially used to screenshotting weird details and roasting them in group chats within minutes. If AI helps teams move faster, good. If it creates messy, inconsistent output, habis lah.
Interestingly, Totoki did not directly connect the Bandai Namco AI pilot to video games, even though Bandai Namco is such a major gaming name. That silence is probably deliberate. Generative AI in games is still a sensitive topic, especially when players are worried about lazy content, job losses, and cheaper production being sold at premium prices.
Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Hideaki Nishino was more direct about PlayStation’s AI direction. He said AI can help shorten development cycles, which have become extremely long for big first-party PlayStation titles. If used properly, that could mean studios spend less time on repetitive production work and more time on actual design, polish, and performance.
For players in Malaysia, this is not just industry talk. AAA games are already expensive here, and console gaming is not getting cheaper. If AI helps developers ship better games faster without cutting corners, players win. But if it simply floods stores with more low-effort content, nobody asked for that.
Nishino also acknowledged that AI could lead to a meaningful increase in content volume. That is the dangerous part. More content does not automatically mean better content. Steam, mobile stores, and even console storefronts already have enough filler. PlayStation’s challenge is proving that AI-assisted work still carries the premium feel people expect from Sony studios.
Sony pointed to existing examples inside its own teams. Naughty Dog and San Diego Studio have used a facial animation tool called Mockingbird, which helps animate 3D models after performance capture. AI is also being used for hair animation, where systems study real hairstyle footage and generate images with hundreds of strands represented.
That kind of AI use is much easier to accept. It is not replacing the story, direction, acting, or game design. It is handling technical-heavy animation work that can take huge amounts of time. If the final scene looks more natural and animators still control the result, then sure, that is a practical upgrade.
AI is also already inside the PS5 Pro through PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution, Sony’s upscaling tech. PSSR was recently improved and now works across many first-party and third-party games. This will likely become even more important when the PS6 era arrives, because AI upscaling is clearly becoming a core part of modern console graphics.
Still, Sony needs to be careful. Gamers are not against better performance. We love higher frame rates and sharper visuals. But if AI upscaling becomes too aggressive, players will notice image weirdness, ghosting, or fake-looking detail. NVIDIA’s DLSS debates already show how quickly the community can turn when AI visuals feel overcooked.
All this AI talk also landed during a rough financial update. Sony said PS5 sales dropped 46 percent year-on-year in its fourth fiscal quarter, with only 1.5 million units sold in that period. Like many tech giants, Sony is also dealing with higher costs and memory shortages. On top of that, the company recently raised prices across its console lineup, marking its second price hike in 12 months.
For Malaysian gamers, that last part is the real pain point. AI-powered production tools sound exciting, but if hardware prices keep climbing, the audience that can actually enjoy these next-gen experiences gets smaller. Sony’s AI future needs to deliver more than buzzwords. It has to mean better games, smarter development, and value that players can actually feel.
Source: Engadget
