March 18, 2026 — AICU Inc. / AICU Japan K.K., Tokyo Japan (hereinafter “AICU”) is pleased to announce the launch of its game development business.
Since its founding, AICU has embraced the vision of “creating people who create” in the generative AI era. Through media operations, education and publishing, creator support, community building, and technology research and development, AICU has worked to foster creator ecosystems both in Japan and around the world.
In this newly launched game development business, AICU will fully engage in the planning, development, and operation of games by leveraging the generative AI technologies it has cultivated, its creative development capabilities, community-building expertise, international collaboration experience, its practice of AIDX (AI-Driven Experience Development), research成果, and its IP creation capabilities, including its portfolio of international patents. Through this initiative, AICU will focus on designing, implementing, and delivering games as experiences that move human hearts through technology.
AICU does not see games merely as part of the entertainment industry. Rather, it views them as a core domain of next-generation deep tech where technology, expression, community, intellectual property, and education intersect—and as a foundational field within Japan’s content technology and creative industries. Building on Japanese-born creativity and IP development, R&D expertise spanning technology, culture, experience design, and prototyping, as well as the “creative media for the AI era” that AICU media has cultivated, AICU will co-create with creators and bring next-generation game development onto the international stage.
Akihiko Shirai, Representative of AICU (Ph.D. in Engineering / Tokyo Institute of Technology), regards entertainment technology as “the greatest deep tech in the AI era—one that evolves with the purpose of moving human hearts.” For more than 30 years, he has advanced international research and development in this field. AICU’s game development business, as well as its media activities and collaborations with creators to date, represent a challenge to bring new game experiences and creative cultures appropriate to the generative AI era into society, grounded in decades of accumulated research, implementation, human resource development, and IP creation.
Games—and entertainment technology more broadly—are comprehensive forms of expression where video, music, storytelling, UX, community operations, live experiences, and continuous updates intersect. In recent years in particular, rapid advances in generative AI have begun transforming every stage of game development, from concept planning and art production to prototyping, worldbuilding, character expression, and operations support.
AICU has continued to grow around three core pillars—MEDIA, CERT, and AIDX—all guided by its vision of “creating people who create in the AI era.” AIDX refers both to digital transformation for the AI era and to AI-Driven User eXperience.
Over the past three years, AICU has advanced the social implementation of AIDX, viewing this transformation not merely as a wave of greater production efficiency, but as the arrival of an era in which new talent can take on challenges more easily and more people can participate on the creative side.
To date, AICU has supported education, development, social implementation, social research such as creator studies, and creator empowerment in the generative AI era through creative AI media, education, publishing, research and development, and community building. In parallel, its AIDX Division has deployed a wide variety of AI-driven entertainment development experiences, including:
This new international game development business is a new challenge that extends directly from AICU’s AIDX activities. It also marks a shift from making AI something that “anyone can do” toward creating AI-native entertainment experiences that only AICU can deliver, with AICU itself generating value as a creator.
Furthermore, Akihiko Shirai—who also serves as Director of the AICU AIDX Lab—holds a Ph.D. in Engineering grounded in more than 30 years of development in entertainment systems technology. His work is backed by IP creation capabilities represented by more than 80 international patent applications over five years, particularly in the fields of real-time CG, GPU applications, ultra-high-speed computer vision, haptics, motion analysis, VR experience development, location-based game experience development, AR experience development, avatars, the metaverse, VTubers / AITubers, chatbot development, and AI-driven media and social media technologies. By integrating these areas of expertise and collaborating with an even broader range of creators in the age of AI-driven development, AICU aims to establish a new game development culture unique to the generative AI era.
Through its game development business, AICU will primarily promote the following initiatives:
Drawing on ideas and experience design unique to the generative AI era, as well as long-standing expertise as game developers, AICU will plan and develop original game titles. Rather than focusing only on standalone works, AICU intends to nurture projects over the long term through continuous updates, dialogue with communities, and project structures that incorporate liveness and shareability.
Leveraging its strengths in generative AI for character operations, resource development, workflow design, creator support, and media development, AICU will advance practical R&D for production infrastructure in areas such as asset generation, prototyping, direction design, and operations support in game development. The focus is not only on production efficiency, but also on expanding expressive possibilities, increasing iteration cycles, and enabling even small teams to take on ambitious development challenges.
Through its media, education, events, publishing, and community operations, AICU has built relationships with many creators and technologists. Going forward, AICU will further leverage this network to build collaborative development structures with a diverse range of talent, including planners, illustrators, game designers, engineers, researchers, VTubers, AITubers, and community organizers.
AICU believes that in creative activity for the AI era, not only technology and speed but also worldbuilding, human resource development, and IP design are essential. Accordingly, in addition to game development itself, AICU will pursue broadly defined IP development encompassing related characters, worlds, educational support for the creators who build them, streaming experiences, community assets, and operational know-how, with the goal of establishing a sustainable business foundation for entertainment technology.
While grounded in Japanese creativity and technology, AICU will promote game development with an eye toward international markets and collaboration with overseas partners. Through participation in international hackathons, media outreach, mentoring and mobility that bring doctoral-level expertise into real-world implementation on the global stage, international conferences, research presentations, IP acquisition, overseas events, collaboration and dialogue with global creator communities, and the development of ethical and legal technologies, AICU aims to expand opportunities for Japanese creators to thrive internationally and open up new possibilities for the game industry in the generative AI era.
Through its game development business, AICU aims to achieve the following:
AICU believes that games and entertainment technology are not merely things to be played, but creative technologies that move human hearts, nurture people, make talent visible, and connect society and the world. Guided by its vision of “creating people who create,” AICU will continue taking on new challenges through game development and expand next-generation creative culture onto the international stage.
“Game technology and the entertainment technologies that support it are among the most dynamically evolving fields of expression in the generative AI era. Through media, education, technical research, community building, technical support for entertainment, and AIDX, AICU has supported creators and cultivated a culture of enjoying and nurturing creativity among everyone from students and people with disabilities to older generations. As a natural extension of that work, this new game development business will focus on creating the world’s best AI-native entertainment experiences. AICU itself will become a creator, and together with diverse collaborators around the world, we will bring new game experiences and new development cultures into society. We are also committed to delivering the power of Japan-originated creativity and research and development firmly onto the global stage.”
AICU is an international creative AI company built around the vision of “creating people who create” in the generative AI era. Through media operations, books and education, R&D, community building, and creator support, AICU empowers people who create with AI. Rooted in knowledge and expression from Japan, AICU advances both social implementation and global communication for the age of creative AI.
Public Relations / Business Development
E-mail: info [at] aicu.ai
Web: https://corp.aicu.ai