Konami: AI Won t Move the Game Market Because the Barrier Already Fell
By Indie Kings | October 18, 2026
Image credit: Automaton/Konami
What Hayakawa wrote, and where
The comments come from Konami Group's Integrated Report for the fiscal year that ended March 2026, a company publication covering corporate values, history, consolidated financials, and the business strategies for each entertainment field Konami operates in. Japanese outlet Dengeki Online spotted the passage, and Automaton West's news article by Đorđe P relayed it to English readers on October 16, 2026.
The relevant section is the Digital Entertainment Business part of the report, where Hideki Hayakawa, president of Konami Digital Entertainment, addresses rapidly evolving generative AI and its potential impact on the industry. Konami is the company behind Metal Gear, Silent Hill, and other series, so its president's market read on AI carries weight beyond one publisher's walls.
Why he says AI won't move the market
There is a broad consensus, per Automaton's framing of the report, that generative AI will significantly lower the entry barrier to game development and make it easier for anyone to make their own games. Hayakawa's position is the opposite on outcomes: he does not believe that lowering of barriers will bring a significant change to the market environment.
The reason, per the report, is history. Hayakawa states that "entry barriers have already been lowered by the advancements of generic game engines and the spread of UGC (user generated content)." In other words, he argues the disruption everyone now expects from generative AI has effectively happened once before, and the market absorbed it.
That is the core of the piece and the part worth repeating alongside a friend: Konami's president thinks the AI barrier collapse is a second event, not a first one, and the first one did not remake the market.
| Barrier lowering event | Mechanism | Hayakawa's read on the market impact |
|---|---|---|
| Generic game engines | Engine advancements already lowered entry barriers | Lowered entry did not significantly change the market environment |
| UGC | Spread of user generated content let more people make content | Already lowered entry barriers |
| Generative AI | Expected consensus: significantly lowers the development barrier | Hayakawa: won't bring a significant change to the market environment |
The creators argument: team chemistry
Hayakawa wrote: "Even if AI use does lead to improvements in production efficiency, I believe that the most important factors in producing entertaining and innovative video games are people and creators," per Konami's Integrated Report as relayed by Automaton.
His supporting logic is about how games actually get made, and it is an organizational claim, not a philosophical one. Games are very often developed in teams, where creators of various backgrounds get to exchange their ideas. Hayakawa argues the blending of those ideas is precisely what opens the doors for creating new kinds of gameplay. "That kind of chemical reaction is not something that can be easily replaced," per Automaton.
The claim is testable, and its test will run over years: if AI-made games began outperforming team-made ones at market, his premise that efficiency gains alone do not shift the market would take damage. As of this report, his bet is that blending ideas from different humans is the core act of making innovative games, not a production step that AI can simply speed up.
He is not an AI skeptic
The piece carries the other half of Hayakawa's position, and leaving it out would misrepresent him. He says he views technological advancements, which have long influenced how games are developed, as a significant opportunity for creating new kinds of experiences.
Per Automaton: "Even when it comes to epoch-making technological innovations, Konami provides systematic support so that creators can get a grasp of new technologies, properly assess the risks they may bring, and safely apply them to game development." The position is therefore not AI refusal, but AI instructions from a company that treats new tools as creator resources: grasp, assess risk, then apply safely.
Four years of raises and the Kutaragi counterpoint
The report comments line up with what Konami has already said out loud about people as an asset. Automaton's related coverage notes that amid mass industry layoffs, Konami is raising salaries for the fourth year in a row, with the company having previously framed it as "human resources are the source of our competitiveness." Combined with the report passage, that reads as a company strategy: fund the creators, support the tools, and let those two factors decide competitiveness.
It is also an argument that other industry veterans see differently. PlayStation creator Ken Kutaragi has suggested the video game industry hasn't caught up with the evolution of AI, which puts him near the opposite camp from Hayakawa on where the industry stands with AI. Indie Kings has covered other AI-and-games beats this month, including NVIDIA's model-size cuts in DLSS 5 and AI-driven development stories, but this report passage is the executive-strategy angle rather than a tooling story.
Our take: I find the "the barrier already fell once" argument the most substantive thing I have read from an executive on generative AI, because it is a market argument rather than either hype or dread. Hayakawa is really asking a specific question: did generic engines and UGC destroy the premium paid game market when they made making things cheap and easy? His answer, after two decades of that history, is no. I think the blind spot of the argument is that he compares a technology with years of market history against one still months old, so the honest version of his claim is that the market has survived a barrier collapse before, not that AI-specific dynamics are settled.
FAQ
What did Konami's president actually say about AI?
Hideki Hayakawa, president of Konami Digital Entertainment, said in the fiscal-year Integrated Report that AI "won't bring a significant change" to the game market environment, per Konami's Integrated Report as relayed by Automaton.
Why does he think AI won't significantly change the market?
He says entry barriers have already been lowered by the advancements of generic game engines and the spread of UGC. His conclusion is that further lowering of the barrier is not a significant market event.
Does Hayakawa oppose using AI at Konami?
No. The report says he views technological advancements as a significant opportunity for new experiences, and Konami provides systematic support so creators can grasp new technologies, assess risks, and safely apply them to development.
What is his argument for people and creators?
Games are developed in teams, creators of various backgrounds exchange ideas, that blending opens the doors to new kinds of gameplay, and "that kind of chemical reaction is not something that can be easily replaced," per the report.
Is this connected to Konami's salary policy?
The framing matches it. Konami is raising salaries for the fourth consecutive year amid mass industry layoffs, per related Automaton coverage, under the prior framing that human resources are the source of the company's competitiveness.
Where did the comments first surface?
In Konami Group's Integrated Report for the fiscal year ended March 2026, in the Digital Entertainment Business section. Dengeki Online spotted it and Automaton West, in an October 16, 2026 article by Đorđe P, brought it to English readers.
Bottom Line
Konami's president is not dismissing generative AI. He is saying its expected market effect, a collapsed entry barrier, already happened when generic game engines and UGC spread, so the event people are bracing for is a repeat rather than a rupture. Against that backdrop, his stated formula for innovative games is people and creators, backed by four straight years of salary increases and by systematic company support for creator-safe adoption of new technology.
Sources
- Konami president Hayakawa believes AI "won't bring a significant change" to the game market. "Humans" and "creators" are crucial for developing innovative games, Automaton West, October 16, 2026, by Đorđe P, relaying the Konami Group Integrated Report for the fiscal year ended March 2026 as spotted by Dengeki Online