A new report on Japanese online game developers claims that 100% of those surveyed use generative AI tools.
The Japan Online Game Association (JOGA) has been conducting surveys with online game developers since 2004, and has now published its 22nd annual report, the JOGA Online Game Market Research Report 2026.
JOGA stresses that this report relates only to domestic (Japanese) games that are “played via the internet regardless of device”. It doesn’t include console or PC games, nor does it include mobile games that are standalone offline experiences which don’t let users connect online.
According to Famitsu’s coverage of the report, 100% of online game companies surveyed said they used generative AI tools.
The most frequently used of these tools is Google Gemini, which 94% of respondents said their company used. Other popular responses were Claude (84%) and GitHib Copilot (76%).
When asked which tasks each company generally delegated to generative AI tools, the most common responses were analysing user preferences and predicting user behaviour.
As well as the companies making the games, the survey also questioned a number of users who played them. They too were asked about the use of generative AI in making the games they play.
According to the survey, a number of respondents said they were concerned that games infringing on copyright were more likely to appear in the future, and that it seemed likely all the games in the future would be similar to each other.
Google exec: AI use is widespread, but studios don’t always disclose it
While the survey only focuses on online games, the use of generative AI among console and PC game developers has also been increasing.
In April, Google Cloud’s global director for games Jack Buser claimed that practically every major game development studio uses AI in game development now, but not all them are comfortable disclosing it yet.
Buser told Mobilegamer.biz that Google’s own tools like Gemini and Nano Banana Pro are used by some studios to remove “the drudgery and repetitive, low value work” in game development, but that while many studios use them the fact that AI is a divisive topic means they keep quiet about it.
“I think what players don’t realise is that their favourite games right now were already built with AI,” he claimed. “Those games have shipped. We did a survey around Gamescom last summer with studios all over the world. Roughly nine out of 10 game developers told us ‘yeah, we’re using it’.”
“Now you’ll see other surveys from other organisations that have that more around like 40-50%. And you might ask yourself, well, that’s still a large number. It’s still almost half of the developers out there. What’s that gap? And that gap is basically the developers’ willingness to tell you whether the fact of the matter is it’s being used.”
