Crazy Taxi: World Tour's AI Controversy Explained — What Sega Actually Did

When Sega finally pulled back the curtain on Crazy Taxi: World Tour at the Xbox Games Showcase on June 7, 2026, longtime fans were understandably thrilled. The series had been dormant since Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller shipped as an Xbox exclusive back in 2002 — over two decades without a mainline entry. The trailer, set to The Offspring's "All I Want" (a direct nod to the classic arcade original), generated genuine excitement. But within hours of the reveal, the mood online shifted. A Steam page disclosure about generative AI use had taken center stage, and it wasn't going away quietly.

Here's a clear-eyed breakdown of what actually happened, what Sega said, and what series creator Kenji Kanno clarified directly.

What the Steam Page Actually Said

The controversy traces back to a single paragraph buried in Crazy Taxi: World Tour's official Steam store page. Steam platform policy now requires developers to disclose if generative AI was used in a game's development, which is why these statements are increasingly surfacing on storefronts rather than in press releases or trailers.

The disclosure on the Crazy Taxi: World Tour Steam page reads in full:

"At SEGA Corporation, we utilize generative AI as a support tool for developers, aiming to provide better content to our users and enable developers to focus more on creative tasks. We have used such generative AI support tools during development of Crazy Taxi: World Tour. No AI was used in reference to the performers in the game."

That last sentence — clarifying that performer likenesses were not AI-generated — was a deliberate inclusion, likely intended to reassure fans. But the rest of the statement is intentionally broad, and that vagueness is exactly what sparked the backlash. What was AI-generated? How much of the game? Those questions went unanswered, and the internet filled the silence with concern.

Sega's Official Response

As criticism mounted, Sega moved quickly to elaborate. The company issued a more detailed statement to Game Informer, which read:

"At SEGA Corporation, generative AI is available as an optional support tool for developers, enabling our teams to focus more on creative tasks and ultimately focus on what matters most: delivering better games to our consumers. Generative AI was used to support our teams during the development of background assets for Crazy Taxi: World Tour. Assets generated were still subject to review by the development team."

This statement offered two meaningful additions over the Steam disclosure:

• Scope: AI was used specifically in relation to background assets, not characters, story content, or core gameplay systems.
• Oversight: Those assets were reviewed by the development team before being included in the game.

It's worth noting, however, that this expanded statement is still largely a repackaging of the Steam disclaimer. Sega did not name the specific tools or models used, nor did it define exactly which background assets were involved or how many.

What Kenji Kanno Actually Clarified

The most substantive and direct clarification came not from a corporate PR team, but from the man who created the original Crazy Taxi — Kenji Kanno, who is directing World Tour. Speaking to Kotaku at Summer Game Fest's Play Days event in Los Angeles, Kanno gave a hands-on explanation of how the technology was actually being used on his team:

"We used it as a reference. So our artists would pull up [and] generate some of their ideas and then they would look at that, you know, generated image and then they would draw the actual thing. So actual creators, everything from programming to assets, everything is made by an actual human. It's only used as a reference for them to look at and then they would actually create the actual thing that would go into the game."

This is a notably different framing from the Steam page. According to Kanno, generative AI functions as a kind of visual mood-boarding tool — artists use AI-generated images to explore ideas and directions, then create the actual in-game assets entirely by hand. If accurate, this means no AI-generated content would technically appear in the shipped game at all.

Kanno also acknowledged the broader tension surrounding the topic:

"Moving forward in the future [generative AI] is probably going to be more of a hot topic, but I think that's all I can say right now on how we use generative AI for this game."

Why the Two Accounts Don't Quite Line Up

Here's where things get a little murky. Sega's official statement to Game Informer says AI was used "to support our teams during the development of background assets," with those assets subject to team review. Kanno's account to Kotaku describes AI being used strictly as a reference tool — something artists look at before drawing assets themselves.

These two framings are not necessarily contradictory, but they aren't perfectly aligned either. "Supporting development of background assets" could mean AI images were used as reference, or it could mean AI-generated imagery made it into the final product in some form. Sega has not specified which specific asset categories were affected, or which generative AI tools were used, leaving a genuine gap between the corporate statement and the creator's more reassuring explanation.

How Fans Reacted

Predictably, fan reaction split along familiar lines. For some players, any use of generative AI is a dealbreaker. Responses in the r/CrazyTaxi subreddit included comments like "It uses Gen AI. Thanks for nothing SEGA," with some users stating they'd simply revisit the original games rather than support a new entry developed with AI involvement.

On the other side, a portion of the gaming community took a more pragmatic view — acknowledging that AI tools are increasingly embedded in modern game development pipelines, and expressing appreciation that Sega disclosed their use at all rather than quietly saying nothing.

Coverage from outlets including Kotaku and Eurogamer largely framed the story around the community's critical reaction, which reflects just how sensitized gaming audiences have become to the subject.

What This Means Going Forward

Crazy Taxi: World Tour is still scheduled to launch in 2027 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2. The game features a story-driven campaign across five cities (with players controlling Axel as he tracks down masked villains who stole his taxi), a classic Arcade Mode, cross-platform multiplayer, and vehicle customisation. By most accounts, the game itself looks promising.

The AI controversy, while real, is also worth keeping in proportion. Based on the clearest statement available — Kenji Kanno's own words — generative AI appears to have functioned as an internal creative reference tool rather than a direct source of shipped in-game content. That's a very different situation from, say, a developer replacing artists outright with AI generation.

That said, the ambiguity in Sega's corporate statements is a legitimate concern, and players are right to ask for more specificity. Until Sega clarifies exactly which assets were touched by generative AI and in what capacity, some uncertainty will remain. For now, Kanno's explanation is the most detailed and direct account available — and it paints a picture of a development team using new technology cautiously, rather than leaning on it wholesale.