Today, Xbox and Inworld AI, a character engine for AI NPCs have announced a multi-year partnership that will bring a powerful toolkit that harnesses artificial intelligence to enrich the narrative and character creation elements of game development. As partners, both companies are focusing to deliver an accessible, responsibly designed multi-platform AI toolset to assist and empower creators in dialogue, story, and quest design.
This toolset will include two things. One, an AI design copilot that assists and empowers game designers to explore more creative ideas, turning prompts into detailed scripts, dialogue trees, quests and more. Two, an AI character runtime engine that can be integrated into the game client, enabling entirely new narratives with dynamically-generated stories, quests, and dialogue for players to experience.
“This partnership will bring together: Inworld’s expertise in working with generative AI models for character development, Microsoft’s cutting-edge cloud-based AI solutions including Azure OpenAI Service, Microsoft Research’s technical insights into the future of play, and Team Xbox’s strengths in revolutionizing accessible and responsible creator tools for all developers,” Haiyan Zhang, General Manager of Gaming AI, Xbox said.
“As with all creators tools we make at Xbox, our goal is to deliver state-of-the-art AI tools for game developers of any size, anywhere in the world and on every platform where players want to play. We want to help make it easier for developers to realize their visions, try new things, push the boundaries of gaming today and experiment to improve gameplay, player connection and more. We will collaborate and innovate with game creators inside Xbox studios as well as third-party studios as we develop the tools that meet their needs and inspire new possibilities for future games.”
“Our approach to AI is based on three principles: meaningful innovation, empowering people and organizations, and responsibility,” Zhang said. “We are committed to creating responsible AI by design, building on Microsoft’s AI principles and Microsoft’s Responsible AI Standard. And we continue our ongoing commitment to bring intentional, inclusive practices and thinking to everything we do at Xbox”
In the official blog post, Ilya Gefenbeyn, InWorld AI talked about the concept behind this new partnership. “What if you could use AI to reduce the time and resource constraints during production to not only ship faster, but to also craft more expansive and immersive worlds and stories? That’s the idea behind the AI copilot that we’re building with Xbox.”
“As an assistant to game developers, our copilot will take the seeds of these creative ideas and transform them into detailed scripts complete with dialogue trees, quests, and more. We’re continuing to work closely with narrative designers in our closed beta to inform the design and scope of the tool, and are looking forward to sharing more at G-Star Korea on November 17.”
“Expanding the capabilities of the character engine will be a core focus of the collaboration, with a dual emphasis on expanding both the engine’s AI modalities and optimizing it for performance at runtime. While we’re focused on bringing depth and realism to characters (and rendering them within the logic and fantasy of their worlds), what we’re most excited about is how developers will use this breakthrough technology in ways that we have yet to imagine,” Gelfenbeyn said.
Bing Gordon, InWorld AI Advisor and Co-Founder of Electronic Arts said “For decades the biggest advancements in gaming have been through improvements in visual fidelity and graphics. But AI will enable truly immersive worlds and sophisticated narratives that put players at the center of the fantasy. Moreover, AI that influences fundamental game mechanics has the potential to increase engagement and draw players deeper into your game.”