French publisher Ubisoft announced a research and development experiment called “.teammates” leverages generative AI technology to turn NPCs into so-called “living companions.”
In a private briefing at Ubisoft’s Paris studio attended by game developers, Ubisoft claimed that the bite-sized experience is an example of how the development team is “pioneering the future of generative play.”
Ubisoft is currently accelerating research and development into generative AI for players, and previously used the early technology to create neo-NPCs.Publisher describes it as an interactive character rather than a program—In collaboration with Nvidia.
company Debuted the Neo NPCs prototype. Released in March 2024, we’ve since doubled down on our generative AI to create our first playable experience.
“In the first prototype in 2024, Neo-NPCs exhibited new cognitive and natural language abilities, but remained in a static environment. teammates By placing non-playable characters (NPCs) with new advanced AI capabilities into a more traditional gameplay setting (first-person shooter), they can dynamically respond to real-time voice commands, adapt their behavior to each situation, and reveal their unique personalities in the process. ” states the press release.
“From mission briefings to battlefield command, teammates It adapts and responds naturally to your strategy, mood, and even your personal slang, creating an experience that feels more responsive than ever before. Leveraging Ubisoft’s unique technology stack, it interprets player intent, tone, and environmental cues to generate fluid, context-aware responses, deepening immersion and player agency. ”
The company explained teammates was built by a team of 80 people and leverages Google Gemini in combination with in-house middleware. For context, when Neo NPC was announced last year, the company had about 25 employees working on generative AI experiments.
teammates is powered by the company’s proprietary Snowdrop game engine, which powers many triple-A projects.
Speaking to reporters at a briefing yesterday, Xavier Manzanares, director of generative AI gameplay at Ubisoft, said the team is determined to “put aside the buzzword ‘GenAI'” by creating experiences that impact players in meaningful ways.
teammates What Ubisoft hopes is a proof of concept that highlights how the seemingly divisive technology often promoted by executives has worked. It has not yet won the affection of many ordinary developers.. The experiment introduces a new in-game companion called Jaspar, a nifty personal assistant (not too dissimilar to Siri) that can talk to players with the push of a button.
“Jasper” It can recognize players by name, assist with onboarding, understand game lore, and highlight threats and important objects in the environment. He reminds players of mission objectives, suggests next steps, and acts as a tactical guide when you don’t know what to do next,” Ubisoft explained.
“With the ability to manage HUD elements, open menus, and control settings, Jaspar can adjust the player interface on the fly, adapting to colorblindness or changing visual elements. These new agent capabilities already show strong potential for improving accessibility and personalization in future games.”
“If you’re better off using a controller, let’s get rid of it.”
During practical time, teammatesUsing Jaspar, we were able to minimize HUD elements, highlight enemies to aid targeting, provide a mission overview, and identify mission objectives. All using very casual voice commands.
teammates There are also two NPC companions, Pablo and Sofia, who can be commanded to assist in combat, puzzle solving, and more. Ubisoft was keen to highlight how all GenAI-powered characters can respond to situational voice commands, without the player having to painstakingly dictate exact details.
For example, when Pablo and Sofia were given a task to complete a puzzle that required them to stand on two separate pressure plates, I was able to tell Pablo to “stand on the left pressure plate” before asking Sofia to “handle the other pressure plate.” I was able to understand both instructions.
It was also possible to ask Pablo and Sofia to congratulate each other after a successful combat trip, but Jasper was actively trying to engage in outlandish conversations with the player throughout the experiment.
“As we’ve done in past games, we use a behavior tree and add a layer of LLM to make decisions based on this. So we control by design what the behavior tree can say and do, but it’s up to the LLM to decide how to do it based on context. […] It’s all about reasoning, knowing what the state of the game is, and then acting,” Manzanares said, talking about how actions play out based on context.
Pressure plate test / Image from Ubisoft
Coach Manzanares explained his aim as follows. teammates The idea was not to create a video game or demo, but rather to build something that people would “feel” as a player to demonstrate the clear potential of generative AI, and hand that over to creative directors and internal teams within Ubisoft.
“It’s all about redefining how you interact with the game thanks to your voice. Do you feel better because of the commands you give to your teammates and AI companions? Do you feel like a leader? Do you feel more than you can feel using a controller? That was the aim,” Manzanares continued.
“Why? Because we want to know as soon as possible what works and what doesn’t. If this is something we’re better off doing with a controller, let’s get rid of it. Stop investing time. We don’t have time. Stop investing time in things that don’t matter.”
Manzanares acknowledged that the experiment is still “in the rough edges,” but said the core goal is to build something from the ground up that shows the potential for interactive gameplay.
Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot’s recent comments indicate that the company is betting big on that possibility becoming a reality.
Discuss the company’s AI plans during today’s earnings call (Transcription by game file), a longtime executive said Ubisoft is taking big steps to apply generative AI to “high-value use cases that deliver tangible benefits to players and teams.”
Guillemot suggested that the impact of generative AI on video games will be comparable to the move to 3D, and confirmed that Ubisoft wants to be a leader in this field.
“On the player experience side, we continue to advance the development of ground-breaking player-generated AI applications, building on the announcement of Neo NPCs in 2024. We are already progressing from prototyping to player reality and look forward to sharing more before the end of the year,” he explained.
“On the production side, we now have teams across all our studios and offices adopting this new technology and constantly exploring new use cases in programming, art, and overall game quality.”
The game developer attended Ubisoft’s press event in Paris, with travel and accommodation provided by the French publisher.
