Injecting Soul into NPCs! Microsoft aims to change the way games are played with AI

As generative AI technology gradually penetrates the gaming industry, the inconspicuous NPC (non-player character) has become the latest element embracing this technology.

Recently, Microsoft Xbox announced a partnership with digital human development company Inworld AI to develop a series of tools to help game developers create AI-based NPC characters with better dialogue and interaction capabilities, thereby enhancing the immersion and experience of the game.

An internal survey conducted by Inworld earlier showed that 79% of players frequently interact with NPCs. However, 28% of players believe that NPCs in current games have difficulty responding correctly to player behavior, and 52% of players complain that NPCs only repeat fixed dialogues.

Kylan Gibbs, Chief Product Officer and Co-founder of Inworld AI, said:

We are creating a technology that allows NPCs to break through preset limitations, adapt to player behavior, and inject vitality into the game world through interactive learning.

AI NPCs are not just a technological leap, but also a paradigm shift in player engagement.

How do AI NPCs inject vitality into games?

This collaboration between Microsoft and Inworld primarily involves two aspects.

First, during the development stage, AI is used to automatically generate personalized background stories for NPCs in the game, which can greatly shorten the game development cycle.

Second, when players interact with NPCs, generative AI is used to assist in constructing NPC dialogues and narrative clues, enhancing the interactivity and fun of the game.

Julian Togelius, Associate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at New York University, believes that the latter is more difficult to achieve. He said:

I think this is harder to do, partly because of the well-known illusion problem in LLM, and partly because games are not designed for this.

Microsoft Xbox stated that in the future, they will collaborate with departments such as Azure and Microsoft Research to provide game developers with state-of-the-art AI tools. At the same time, they will also collaborate with Xbox Studios and third-party studios to stimulate imagination for the future.

AI reshaping the gaming industry

Gibbs said that the technology behind AI NPCs will become a catalyst for a new era of storytelling, creative expression, and innovative games, and many things that will emerge in the future will be unimaginable.

Bing Gordon, advisor to Inworld and former Chief Creative Officer of Electronic Arts, said that the biggest advancements in the gaming industry in recent decades have been in visual fidelity and graphics. He believes that AI will reshape the world of game players and game designers.

"AI will create a truly immersive world and complex narratives that fulfill players' fantasies," Gordon said. "In addition, AI that influences core game mechanics can also increase player engagement and attract them to delve deeper into the game." Bain & Company's media and entertainment business partner, Anders Christofferson, believes that the first major opportunity for the new generation of AI may lie in the gaming industry.

According to a recent study by Bain, AI has already taken on some tasks in game production, including pre-production and planning of game content. Soon, it will play a bigger role in the development of characters, dialogues, and environments.

The research also shows that game industry executives expect AI to manage more than half of game development work in the next five to ten years.

While this may not necessarily reduce production costs, as the total development cost of big-budget games can reach up to $1 billion, it will improve efficiency and game quality, accelerating project progress.

Ultimately, the widespread adoption of the new generation of AI will involve ordinary players in game content creation. This means that more games will achieve what Christofferson calls a "creative mode," allowing for increased user-generated content, which Gibbs refers to as "player-driven narratives."

Analysts believe that embedding AI into NPC characters is not only significant for game companies and developers, but also presents opportunities for chip companies that provide long-term support to the gaming industry.

John Spitzer, NVIDIA's developer and performance technology vice president, recently told the media that all developers are interested in how AI will impact the game development process. He will provide hardware support for a key test of NPCs.