Capcom’s upcoming new game, Pragmata, thrusts players into a dystopian lunar world where a rogue AI serves as the primary antagonist, making life incredibly difficult for a spaceman and his android companion. What’s truly surprising, however, is that despite the recent explosion of interest in artificial intelligence, especially within the gaming world, the developers behind Pragmata had no inkling that AI would become such a prevalent real-world topic when they first began crafting the game.
Speaking at Tokyo Game Show 2025, game director Cho Yonghee and producer Naoto Oyama revealed that the initial spark for Pragmata came from Yonghee simply musing about the moon. He then tasked his team with brainstorming game ideas centered around Earth’s natural satellite. This creative process eventually led to the concept of a stark ‘black and white world’ on the moon, with the idea of an AI enemy emerging later in the development process.
Yet, as the team confirmed, none of them foresaw that they would be releasing a game featuring an adversarial AI at a time when real-life artificial intelligence was causing so much discussion and concern.
“We truly couldn’t have predicted how massive AI would become since we started,” Yonghee explained. “But now that AI has grown into such a huge real-world phenomenon, we look back and think, ‘Oh, maybe we should have incorporated this or that from what we’re seeing in AI now.’ We definitely have moments where we’re like, ‘We should have thought of that!'”
However, both Yonghee and Oyama clarified that these recent real-world advancements in AI haven’t swayed the game’s core narrative or direction. By the time AI became a hot topic, Pragmata’s story was already firmly established.
Oyama stated, “We had the foundational idea for the game’s AI locked down very early in development, right around when we released the concept trailer a few years ago. We basically stuck with that vision for what you’ll see in the game. We just genuinely couldn’t have foreseen AI becoming this prominent today.”
Yonghee chimed in, adding, “Indeed, the progression and development of real-life AI have been so incredibly fast that it might have even surpassed what we currently have in the game. So, what you experience in Pragmata might not seem as cutting-edge when compared to real-life advancements.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle at their sentiment, pointing out that we don’t quite have ‘Dianas’ (referring to a character in the game) running loose in the real world just yet.
“We envisioned a near future, but that future has arrived much sooner than expected,” Oyama responded with a wry smile.
“Exactly,” Yonghee agreed. “The term ‘AI’ itself feels a bit old now. It’s possible that by the time Pragmata’s setting truly comes to pass, people won’t even be using the word ‘AI’ anymore.”
Capcom recently offered another glimpse of Pragmata during their Online Program alongside TGS, and an earlier hands-on preview of the game was available at Gamescom this year. The developers also shared some fascinating early ideas for Pragmata, including the intriguing possibility that it might feature a talking dog character. Pragmata is slated for release sometime next year.