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Generative AI in gaming has been a gnarled, thorny subject for the past few years. Recent experiments have raised the hackles of artists and writers alike—though thus far said experiments have mostly proved that it does a bad job of replicating the human touch.
Layoffs are sweeping the gaming industry and Ubisoft has announced more. Nearly 10,000 people were laid off last year as the industry started to shift in a different direction. Many companies are looking towards live service games to make the money necessary to survive and Ubisoft has been a part of this trend. Its Skull and Bones was released in February, and continues to capitalize on the live service concept. Regardless, it seems preventing layoffs was not possible.
It will probably come as no surprise that Ubisoft's free-to-play XDefiant will not be out by March 31—today is April 1, after all, and it's still not here. In a weekend update on Twitter, Ubisoft acknowledged the game's latest miss but said a brief server stress test is coming, after which a real launch date will finally be announced.
Ubisoft has confirmed plans to lay off a further 45 employees as part of an ongoing exercise to “streamline operations”.
The Taiwan server giant Quanta has received huge OEM orders for NVIDIA's GB200 AI servers, with tech behemoths interested in the technology.
Neural networks have grown substantially over the recent years from the iteration of the first Generative Pre-trained Transformers. As NVIDIA has refined their latest graphics cards and Tensor Cores, the capabilities of those networks has been greatly improved in recent years. Traditionally just text-based inputs, NVIDIA has been leveraging TensorRT for deep learning and audio interpretation. In two separate hands-on demonstrations with Inworld AI technology at GDC 2024, we had the opportunity to try and turn both Ubisoft’s NEO NPCs and NVIDIA’s Covert Protocol.
Ubisoft has confirmed that XDefiant is delayed once again but teased that another public playtest is coming soon. Potential Call of Duty competitor XDefiant was previously intended to launch during Q1 2024, which ends on March 31.
Numerous game companies are currently experimenting with NPCs powered by generative AI, from Nvidia's Convai-powered ramen connoisseur, to Ubisoft's GDC showcase of its «Neo NPCs». There is potential for interesting game design using these technologies, with Ubisoft boldly claiming the tech could «transform the way players interact with non-playable characters». Yet the quest designer involved in creating some of the best handcrafted NPCs in existence – CD Projekt Red's Pawel Sasko – believes there's a «gigantic, really long way to go» before AI NPCs will match the quality of scripted characters.