Capcom wants an AI-powered RE Engine, and the community is already raising an eyebrow

Capcom has laid out the future of its most valuable technology. As reported by IGN España, the company behind Resident Evil and Street Fighter held its own technology conference on October 2 and explained where it wants to take the RE Engine: improving it step by step until it becomes an “AI-based game engine.” Capcom itself describes this as an essential condition for speeding up development in the years ahead.

Many fans were quick to react, and not exactly with applause. The term artificial intelligence has become something of a dirty word in the industry, associated with cutbacks, generic content and concerns about artists' work. When one of the Japanese publishers with the strongest creative streak of the past decade puts it at the heart of its engine, that's no minor detail: it's a statement of intent that affects how its next games will be made.

What you need to know

• Capcom presented its plans for the RE Engine at its own technology conference, held on October 2.
• The goal is to gradually transform the engine into an “AI-based game engine.”
• The company frames the change as essential to streamlining future development.
• The announcement has sparked concern among fans, who are wary of AI being used in video games.

What Capcom announced and why it's unsettling

The first thing worth stressing is what we know and what we don't. The available information points to a gradual evolution, not an overnight shift, and focuses on production speed. What isn't clear is which specific areas this AI will be applied to, or how much weight it will carry within the teams. And it's precisely that gap that fuels the distrust: when a company talks about efficiency without explaining how, the community tends to imagine the worst-case scenario.

The concern has several layers. Some people are thinking about the jobs of artists, animators and writers; others fear a loss of identity in franchises that earned their reputation through painstaking craftsmanship in every detail; and others simply distrust a technology that, in other industries, has been used more to cut costs than to improve things. For now, Capcom has set the direction, but it hasn't cleared up those doubts.

Who it affects: from studios to the competitive scene

The RE Engine is the backbone of much of Capcom's recent catalog, so any change to its foundations ends up rippling through everything built on top of it. For internal studios, the promise is faster work. For players, the question is whether that speed will translate into better games, more frequent releases or simply tighter budgets.

On the competitive side, the issue takes on its own meaning. A fighting game like Street Fighter lives on precision: frames, hitboxes, readable animations and balance that gets tuned patch by patch. If AI is used to iterate faster on internal tools, testing or bug fixing, it could be good news for the scene. If, on the other hand, it creeps into design decisions without solid human oversight, the risk of inconsistencies is real, and in a competitive game every inconsistency gets paid for at tournaments.

Our take

Here in the Underworld Lordz newsroom, we're not buying into knee-jerk panic, but we're not buying the corporate hype either. Artificial intelligence applied to development tools isn't inherently bad: automating repetitive tasks can free teams up to focus on what really matters. The problem is that Capcom chose a very broad phrasing, an AI-based engine, without grounding it in concrete examples, and in the current climate that's practically asking the community to be suspicious.

For those of us who compete, our demand is simple: netcode quality, visual clarity and consistent balance must not be sacrificed in the name of speed. For content creators, the concern lies elsewhere: if games start to look more alike, we lose material, personality and reasons to tell stories around them. Capcom's visual identity is part of what makes its games look and stream so well.

Our position is clear: Capcom has earned some trust with its recent track record, but that credit isn't unlimited. It's on the company to explain transparently what AI will do inside the RE Engine and what will stay in the hands of its people. Until then, we'll be watching closely, and there will be no blank checks.

What do you think?

AI is already making its way into the engines of major companies, and Capcom has just openly joined in. It could be a useful tool or the beginning of colder, more generic games. Do you trust Capcom to use artificial intelligence to make its games better, or do you think they'll end up losing quality and personality? Let us know in the team chat or on our Discord.