As anticipation builds for the 2027 release of Stranger Than Heaven, the game’s director has weighed in on a growing industry debate: whether generative AI will soon become a necessity for high-budget game development.

Developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, Stranger Than Heaven is one of the most ambitious titles of the coming season, featuring major contributions from high-profile talents such as Snoop Dogg and Japanese singer Ado. Given its scale, speculation had arisen that the studio might have turned to artificial intelligence to manage production demands.

However, in an interview with Dexerto during Summer Game Fest 2026, director Masayoshi Yokoyama made it clear that no generative AI tools were used in the making of his game. He addressed the subject in the context of two deceased personalities who appear in Stranger Than Heaven: Sugawara Bunta and Tupac Shakur, both of whom are voiced by actors.

“I can’t speak to the future, but we’re not using any AI right now for these characters,” he told us. “For both Sugawara Bunta and for Tupac, the voice actors that we picked to play them are actors who had a relationship with these both those people before they were deceased, and we made sure that both them and their families were okay with the casting and that everybody would do full due respect to those people’s memory.”

Stranger Than Heaven Tupac

Yokoyama also acknowledged that his team has used debugging software, though he noted this is a standard practice in game programming that has existed for years. Regarding generative AI, however, he said:

“We’re confident that we can make the things that we want to. We don’t think we need to borrow the help of a tool that will help us create this. We don’t really have any plans immediately to use generative AI.”

That said, Yokoyama expressed uncertainty about whether studios like his will be able to keep AI at arm’s length forever. He pointed to the impending release of Grand Theft Auto VI as a potential turning point.

“If the world changes and the only games that people want to play are games on the scale of, for example, GTA VI, that are ten, twenty times the size of the games that we’re making, it’ll probably come to the point where not just us, but every maker, every publisher will have to start considering the use of generative AI, because otherwise, it won’t be economically feasible to make a GTA VI with smaller teams alike that, right?” he added.

For the time being, Yokoyama said Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio remains uninterested in adopting specialized AI software, though he left the door open for a shift in strategy if player expectations evolve.

“For now, we don’t need to. We’re not thinking about it. We’re confident we can make the things that we wanna make. For the future, if people only want GTA VI-size games, then we don’t know,” he concluded.

What do you think? Will generative AI become a standard tool in video game development? Share your thoughts in the comments.