Jason DittonIn a recent earnings call, Ubisoft which is currently led by co-founder, chairman and CEO, Yves Guillemot, appears to be very high on the potential of generative AI in video games.
The studio’s charging forth on the pre-eminent French studio’s intent to make it a major part of Ubisoft’s development cycle moving forward. Guillemot, 65, also notes that it will be used as part of its new Project Neo NPC tech, showed off at GDC last year, although to outside observers it’s currently uncertain how it’ll actually be used going forth. This contributor notes that the recent free-to-play open world Wuxia title by Netease, Where Winds Meet, has incorporated the use of less advanced chat-bots for its non-story important NPCs, so it’s not completely breaking new ground. Guillemot also stated during the earnings call that generative AI “is as big a revolution for the industry as the shift to 3D” and, in the name of professionalism, this contributor will bite their tongue at that particular statement.
“On the production side, we now have teams in all our studios and offices embracing these new technologies, and constantly exploring new use cases in programming, art, and overall game quality.”
The studio is fresh off higher than expected earnings for Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, and is in the midst of a €1.16 billion new deal with Tencent, detailed elsewhere on this very site. It’s additionally fresh off Tommy François, Serge Hascoët, and Guillaume Patrux, former executives for Ubisoft, being convicted for various crimes earlier this year, for offenses ranging from sexual misconduct to setting an (obviously now former) colleague’s beard on fire, and Guillemot himself being summoned to the Bobigny court (Seine-Saint-Denis) in October of this year, although Ubisoft and its management as a whole are under no criminal investigation themselves.
What do you think? Do you think this will work out in the long-term, or is this going to end poorly? Please let us know below.