Crazy Taxi: World Tour AI Backlash — Sega Responds to Steam Disclosure Controversy

From Standing Ovation to Controversy in Hours

On June 7, 2026, Crazy Taxi: World Tour was revealed at the Xbox Games Showcase 2026 — a moment fans had waited over two decades for. The trailer showed a modernized San Francisco-inspired map, original driver Axel, and The Offspring on the soundtrack. Gaming communities erupted in nostalgia-fueled excitement.

Then, within hours, someone found the Steam page.

A generative AI disclosure notice had been posted alongside the game's listing, and the reaction shifted quickly from celebration to anger.

Timeline of Events

Official Reveal Trailer

The Steam Disclosure That Started It All

Sega's initial statement on the Crazy Taxi: World Tour Steam page read:

"

"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."

After press inquiries, Sega provided an expanded statement to Game Informer:

"

"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."

The vagueness of "background assets" and "subject to review" left many players unsatisfied — if AI assets were reviewed and removed, why mention them at all? If they passed review, are they in the final game?

Kenji Kanno's Clarification

At Summer Game Fest's Play Days event, series creator and lead producer Kenji Kanno was asked directly by Kotaku about the team's AI use:

"

"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."

— Kenji Kanno, via Kotaku

He elaborated further with Game Informer, explaining that for a game set across five international locations, artists and designers traveled to actual sites for research:

"

"Our artists, our designers, they actually went to the actual locations, and they took references, and based on that, they came up with the designs. And generally, AI is just one part of that, and is used as a hint or part of the ideation."

— Kenji Kanno, via Game Informer

"

"We want to create things ourselves and deliver that as a great experience for our customers. So rest assured, everything in the final product is going to be original."

— Kenji Kanno, via Game Informer

All Sides of the Debate

📌 Sega's Position

• ▶AI used only as a development reference tool for background assets
• ▶All in-game assets created by human artists and designers
• ▶Nothing AI-generated will appear in the shipped product
• ▶No AI used for voice actors or performer likenesses

📌 Fan Community

• ▶"If it's just reference, why does the Steam disclosure need to exist at all?"
• ▶"Generative AI models are trained on copyrighted work from human artists without consent — the ethical problem exists upstream"
• ▶Time Extension headline: "How Embarrassing" — characterizing the backlash as severe
• ▶774,000+ trailer views show genuine interest in the game itself despite controversy

📌 Industry Context

• ▶Around 45,000 game industry workers were laid off between 2022 and end of 2025, with up to 10,000 more expected in 2026
• ▶Multiple awards organizations have introduced rules disqualifying AI-assisted work
• ▶Steam's disclosure requirement was implemented to provide transparency — but it has also become a lightning rod for fan reactions

Simultaneous: War Thunder's AI Texture Scandal

The same week, War Thunder faced a different but related controversy. Gaijin confirmed that an outsourced team — whose contract explicitly prohibited AI-generated content — had used generative AI for an M60 tank camouflage texture that passed through QC and shipped in the live game.

"

"The use of generative AI for in-game vehicle textures is not authorized by Gaijin and is prohibited under our contracts with outsourcing partners." — War Thunder Steam post

Gaijin launched a full audit of all work from the implicated contractor and is reviewing its internal QC pipeline to improve AI detection.

This case is fundamentally different from Crazy Taxi's situation (unauthorized vs. disclosed) but both stories landing in the same week underscores how pervasive the AI-in-games debate has become.

Precedent: Clair Obscur and the Awards Question

In 2025, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was disqualified from a Game of the Year award at the Indie Game Awards after developer Sandfall Interactive was found to have used AI placeholder assets that shipped in the final build. Sandfall subsequently announced that all future content would be human-created.

The Crazy Taxi situation may not reach that threshold — Kanno's account suggests AI was used upstream of production, not in final assets — but it has made fans hyperaware of what "AI-assisted" can mean in practice.

What We Know About the Game

Setting aside the controversy, Crazy Taxi: World Tour itself looks promising:

👉 Wishlist Crazy Taxi: World Tour on Steam

GamePeak's Take

The disclosure on Crazy Taxi's Steam page is likely the result of Sega's legal team being conservative about AI transparency — Steam's new disclosure requirement pushed studios to be explicit about any AI tool use, however minor. Kanno's explanation that AI images were used as references in ideation (not as final assets) is consistent with how many studios use these tools today.

But "consistent with common practice" and "satisfying to fans" are different things. In a job market where thousands of game artists have been laid off, any acknowledgment of AI use in a beloved franchise's revival hits differently. The trust calculus here isn't just about what AI did on this project — it's about what it signals for the industry going forward.

Crazy Taxi: World Tour is set for 2027. How its development story unfolds between now and launch will determine whether this controversy is a footnote or a chapter.