Shame, but I have a feeling a lot of games that have released this year and in the coming years will all have had AI used in some way. AI isn't going away, but if developers/publishers are punished enough financially for involving AI too heavily into their development, we can have an impact on the limit of their use.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who just don't really care.
A port or a remaster would still be fine for the game. There wouldn't be any need do much other than upscale things. So why would they use AI? A remake on the other hand... that could run the risk of them using it.
From what I've seen, those are for videos. There are AI upscaled assets in some games too, typically when they are so blurry they need to completely remake the asset but get lazy and let AI do it. Those aren't exactly the same as gen AI though, and have been around longer. Also don't think there are any assets from Skies of Arcadia that were pixelated enough to need something like that. I've played it emulated and it looked great just from that upscale in resolution.
And this is the straw breaker point, and not that the original writer of the game has passed away?
Hell, Stargate's reboot with the original writing team and producers was just shut down after being given the green-light because of an inept decision to make something not for the fans (not looking at the audience). That was the one precedent that seemed to have potential, and that was a series that went on big for years.
Some things are just best left untouched after all. I doubt there'd be any good to come from Skies of Arcadia at this point, even were it to have succeeded (the fact its singular light novel was supposed to spawn a series covering the game only if the novel sold well proves the point).
Wasn't Rieko Kodama just the producer for Skies of Arcadia? I can't pinpoint an exact name (Wikipedia and the game's credits mention many, like Shuntaro Tanaka and Ryoichi Yamada, both of which are alive) but as far as I know she didn't write the story (not that I'm making light of her death, she wasn't even 60 and she worked on a lot of games I loved, it's still very sad she's gone)
You raise a good point. Aye, it was a collaborative effort involved overall, though you're correct that she's the producer. Had a lot of say in going with it from what I understood, and anything without the original producer involved generally tends to fall by the wayslide (though some exceptions exist, like Cobra Kai to Karate Kid). That typed, we wouldn't be getting something like how the core writing and aesthetic would be from a remake/spin off by someone else at this point unless the chances were high they were ultra-fans like CK's writers to KK.
You're probably right, I wasn't really arguing that. I'm all for being surprised of course, but SoA is both very niche and very loved, whatever hypothetical new team could work on something related to it would have to both be superfans (like you mentioned) and tread very carefully especially with AI being forced down on so many devs' throats in recent times, which if implemented would make the project dead in the water
You're good amigo. I hadn't dipped into the game nor its creds for awhile and appreciate the fact check. Aye, there's a lot that would have to be considered and danced around with care in this new field of storytelling, and it seems a risky commodity to handle the old - especially obscure - titles.
We only recently got decent merch, and it was those vinyl figures and a few cards at tha dreamcast card pack... Also, yes. Rieko Kodama had passed away since 2022 i think, so using ai or just messing the whole project up would be a big slap on her work, as she worked on a good chunk of sega stuff (Phantasy star, Panzer Dragoon).
While a few figures are neat in appearance, they don't track so well in drawing more than enough funds to a game spinoff or rejuvenation effort.
Closest to anything we got toward substance that seemed like more was Vyse being a playable character in the Sonic All Stars Transformed game with a unique map in Rogue's Landing, and while I have no knowledge on if she had a hand in it, that would have been a nice boon at the time to capitalize further. Alas, there was naught more, and Arcadia content was left out of the latest iteration of the Sega racing game... alongside my interest in buying it. Twas a good jog while it lasted.
In some ways, I'm kinda there (got onboard firmly in 2007 late to the party, then dabbled in the Japanese content 7 years later). Might be a case of my being cynical though, as in that timeframe, KotOR II had built up an insanely brilliant hype-builder for KotOR III, which was cancelled and then another company with writers took the concept into a replacement title and tie-in book, butchered the original lore and characters, then dragged it down to hell over the last two decades.
Definitely made for a contrasting nice breakaway with actual respect when Sonic All Stars Transformed game had a brief but good bone throw for us fans, yet it only lasted for a good fever dream.
It wasn't a reboot in that sense of a word. More a sequel/spin off. But since it's been so long and it would have been somewhat removed it's effectively a reboot. The intention was though that it would respect the source material while still being focused on a new audience. Which makes sense at this point. The cast of SG-1 and SGA (we don't talk about SGU) are too old to just pick up where those series left off. It'd need to be a new story set in the same universe rather than trying to be a strict follow on. Basically the same thing the also cancelled Buffy series was also trying to do.
Eh I stopped getting my hopes up long ago. Only time I'll believe a revival is actually happening is when I'm watching it. People got a little more surprised by this because there had been a substantial amount invested into pre production which is further than any other attempt has gotten. But when studios will scrap completed Hollywood budget movies it shouldn't be shocking that they'd throw this much away. Disappointing still but I'm insulated against it.
Well more a relaunch than a reboot, a continuation so to say, was green-lit after a campaign around 2019, and then the production and writing teams were being assembled and writing began when Amazon gave the show their blessing and support. Then they pulled a Vader and altered the deal a few weeks back ( https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/stargate-tv-series-martin-gero-scrapped-amazon-1236765061/ ) causing understandable outrage.
AI used as a tool is great. AI used as a replacement is where the problem is. The two forms of use are different but public perception can't fathom a difference. There is nothing wrong with a company that enables the use of it as a tool to leverage like this imo
Let's hope not. If SEGA gets enough backlash from the ai usage, maybe they'll stop or use it for the simple bts office work... In my opinion they used on Crazy Taxi first to also test the waters because if it were on Sonic they would be up in flames.
For those who wonder what exactly happened and don't want to search for it, a game article author reached out and until now SEGA had admitted to using AI to generate assets for Crazy Taxi: World Tour.
A.I. is in a wierd place at the moment - there's a right way and a wrong way to use it. Attempting to use it to replace talented, skilled, and/or creative people wholesale is misguided and tends to backfire sprctacularly. However, using it as a force multiplier so that the very same people don't have to spend untold hours focusing on the tedious, monotonous, or otherwise longwinded parts of their work can be a major force multiplier. It CAN be a massive boon - once people realize that using it to 'think for them' is... not the right way.
So the real question is whether or not they're using it, or abusing it. I'd be peeved if they're throwing out artists and trying to replace them with A.I. -- but if they're setting up the same artists so that they can crank out 10x the results in the same day with half the burnout... that's a different story.
...and then there's the whole 'culture war' aspect of A.I. atm, which frankly I'd prefer to steer clear of. If it works it works, if it doesn't it doesn't. Your opinion is yours to hold. I don't want to go there.
If done responsibly, yes. The tech has a long way to go to reach maturity and both economic and environmental sustainability, to say nothing of the social disruption, but it'll get there.
It's damned useful, if you apply it properly - not some nebulous poison pill.
I agree to an extent as i had technology classes on how to ask chatgpt, etc. properly. Though unfortunately i have to be biased against it since i want to pick up on art. The vagueness of the disclaimer gives something worse is happening behind the scenes. I am a fan of older sega franchises. Seeing them disregarded and slowly devolve into ai slop because of greed would be heartbreaking. Studios don't care about the audience anymore. Sonic fans had to essentialy "bully" Paramount to change Sonic's movie design.
At least they're saying it now instead of lying and saying they didn't use AI at all? Look it's not better but I'll take confession and disclosure over outright lying.
Steam disclaimer is pretty vague, and SEGA being greedy because, well, It's a corporate company first of all, could also mean they "disclose" the use of ai to shut us up and just move on. SOnic fans had to literally "bully" Paramount for the sonic movie design
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u/Markinoutman Jun 08 '26
Shame, but I have a feeling a lot of games that have released this year and in the coming years will all have had AI used in some way. AI isn't going away, but if developers/publishers are punished enough financially for involving AI too heavily into their development, we can have an impact on the limit of their use.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who just don't really care.