Stranger Than Heaven director says GTA 6-scale games could force studios to consider generative AI

Stranger Than Heaven executive director Masayoshi Yokoyama opened up about Ryu Ga Gotoku’s stance on AI, making comparisons to massive games like Grand Theft Auto 6.

The use of AI in games development has been a heated topic of debate as of late, as multiple publishers for upcoming titles — like Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis and Crazy Taxi: World Tour  — have released statements confirming how and why it was used in their games.

Dexerto got the chance to sit down with Yokoyama in an interview panel at Summer Game Fest 2026, where he addressed RGG’s stance on using artificial intelligence in its own games.

RGG Studio didn’t use generative AI for Stranger Than Heaven

Yokoyama confirmed that Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio has not used generative AI for Stranger Than Heaven “at all.”

He specifically made mention of Sugawara Bunta and Tupac, two deceased celebrities who are playing posthumous roles in the game, saying that no generative AI was used for their characters whatsoever.

“I can’t speak to the future, but we’re not using any AI right now for these characters,” he told us. “For both Sugawara Bunta and for Tupac, the voice actors that we picked to play them are actors who had a relationship with these both those people before they were deceased, and we made sure that both them and their families were okay with the casting and that everybody would do full due respect to those people’s memory.”

Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio

However, he did confirm that the studio has been using non-generative AI “for a while” to help with tasks like debugging, though he noted that this is quite common in the industry and has been utilized by many developers for years at this point.

“When it comes to generative AI, right now, we’re confident that we can make the things that we want to. We don’t think we need to borrow the help of a tool that will help us create this. We don’t really have any plans immediately to use generative AI,” he added.

RGG Studio doesn’t need AI today, but GTA VI could change that

Yokoyama went on to clarify that he isn’t certain of what the future holds for RGG in regards to generative AI. Specifically, he said that GTA VI might create a demand for massive games on a similar scale — and if RGG follows suit to cater to these demands, they might need to utilize it for economic reasons.

“If the world changes and the only games that people want to play are games on the scale of, for example, GTA VI, that are ten, twenty times the size of the games that we’re making, it’ll probably come to the point where not just us, but every maker, every publisher will have to start considering the use of generative AI, because otherwise,  it won’t be economically feasible to make a GTA VI with smaller teams alike that, right?” he mused.

“For now, we don’t need to. We’re not thinking about it. We’re confident we can make the things that we wanna make. For the future, if people only want GTA VI-size games, then we don’t know.”

Stranger Than Heaven is scheduled to release on January 15, 2027 on XBOX Series X|S, Steam, and PlayStation 5.