Square Enix Sets Bold Plan to Let AI Handle Most Game Testing by 2027

Square Enix wants artificial intelligence to handle up to 70% of its quality assurance (QA) work by the end of 2027. The publisher, famous for titles like Final Fantasy, revealed this push in a new progress report tied to last year’s Mid-Term Business Plan. It’s not a small target, and the company’s going all-in with support from the University of Tokyo’s Matsuo-Iwasawa Laboratory.

This isn’t Square Enix’s first leap into tech trends. But this time, the stakes are higher, with the goal to “improve the efficiency of QA operations and establish a competitive advantage in game development.”

The Push for AI, Direct From the Lab

The partnership with the Matsuo-Iwasawa Laboratory is at the core of Square Enix’s AI experiment. This isn’t just a casual collab or research grant. More than ten people, experts from the university’s dedicated technology department and Square Enix’s own engineers, are already deep in research mode. The hope? That AI-driven automation will overhaul the way games are tested, speeding up production and perhaps even lowering costs.

The Matsuo-Iwasawa Laboratory’s own ambitions aren’t small either. The lab, part of the University of Tokyo, says it wants to “create an ecosystem that is equivalent to Silicon Valley.” That makes Square Enix’s partnership more than just a gaming story; it’s about pushing Japan’s technology sector forward as a whole.

Since launching its Mid-Term Business Plan, Square Enix claims it’s been “promoting AI utilisation in Japan” as a key part of an effort to “create additional foundational stability.” This is not a short-term PR moment. The publisher is betting on artificial intelligence to fundamentally reshape how it builds, ships, and supports games.

A Relentless Embrace of Game Tech: Metaverse to AI

Square Enix has been chasing new technology for years. Its CEO announced early in 2024 that the company would be “aggressive in applying AI.” In February, Square Enix was already using Azure OpenAI to help with development on undisclosed projects. This isn’t a passing interest. The company is fully committed to exploring how machine learning and generative AI can streamline its creative process, especially QA, which is one of the most labour-intensive parts of game-making.

The AI push arrives after a string of past tech bets. In 2022, Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda said the Metaverse would shape the company’s future. The company jumped into blockchain gaming too, releasing Symbogenesis in 2023. That project just wrapped its final season eight months ago after some fanfare and a lot of curiosity from the rest of the industry.

The publisher’s relationship with AI has its rough patches. Earlier this week, Square Enix and fellow Japanese publishers formally requested that OpenAI stop training its Sora 2 model on their creative content. There’s clear caution mixed in with the bold ambitions, but nothing so far has dulled the company’s appetite for digital experimentation.

What about results? So far, there’s been some “dabbling” with AI on real projects. For example, updates on Foamstars, a company game that drew on AI tech during its development, ended earlier this year. That experiment proves Square Enix is serious about putting new ideas to the test, even if every gamble doesn’t pay off.

The real story is how Square Enix keeps doubling down on emerging technology, with generative AI as its next big bet. Whether the automation of QA makes their games better, faster, or simply cheaper might not be clear until 2027. But if the publisher gets anywhere near its goal, Japanese game development could soon look very different.