Resident Evil Dev Capcom Plans To Embrace AI In Game Development

Published Oct 3, 2026, 10:31 AM EDT Tomas Franzese is the Weekend News Editor at Polygon, following and reporting on the latest goings-on in the gaming and entertainment spaces. During the week, you can find him working on Remastered, his newsletter about video game history and retro gaming, or contributing to GameSpot and other publications. Previously, Tomas was the Gaming Segment Lead at XDA and a Staff Writer at Digital Trends. The next iteration of RE Engine is being built so Capcom can make games "together with AI," although it's still not using generative AI Resident Evil and Onimusha developer Capcom plans to embrace AI in game development Image: Nvidia/Capcom Sign in to your Polygon.com account A Capcom developer recently made some eyebrow-raising statements about integrating AI into RE Engine, the game engine Capcom uses to make games like Resident Evil Requiem, Pragmata, and Onimusha: Way of the Sword. While it hasn't fully embraced generative AI to create in-game content yet, Capcom outlined a goal to forge "a future where we create games together with AI." These surprising statements came from programmer Satoshi Ishida at Capcom Open Conference RE: 2026, a tech conference that the company holds to showcase developments on the RE Engine. Reported on first by GameBiz and translated by IGN, Ishida discussed the REX Project, which is meant to evolve RE Engine "for the next generation." Many of these improvements aren't AI-related and simply focus on things like data formatting or memory management. That said, Ishida also made comments like "successfully integrating AI technology into development workflows has become an essential condition for streamlining future development," and "our goal is a future where we create games together with AI." Those statements are certainly red flags if you don't want AI involved in game development, although the kind of AI Ishida refers to differs from generative AI used to create art or other game assets. As of March 2026, Capcom had told investors that it did not plan to use generative AI to create content for its games. Resident Evil Requiem was one of the games used in Nvidia DLSS 5's controversial reveal. For now, Capcom's interest in AI seems primarily workflow-driven, so we shouldn't expect the next Resident Evil game to be produced entirely with generative AI. Still, if you're like me and enjoy Capcom's games but are anxious about generative AI continually seeping its way into the game industry, these new statements are nerve-wracking. The hand-crafted feel of Capcom's games is part of what makes them so great in the first place.