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Ever seen the movie “Free Guy?”
The flick starring Ryan Reynolds and Jodie Comer is one of my personal favorites from recent years.
Imagine a game like The Division 2 where enemies were AI-controlled and changed their behavior.
What exactly is Free Guy about?
Breaking free of his NPC loop and getting into Free City just the same as regular players would.
And by the end, he isn’t the only NPC breaking their ‘programming.’
Imagine a game like The Division 2 where enemies were AI-controlled and changed their behavior.
NPCs could become intelligent
Imagine if GTA 6 finally launched with NPCs like Guy.
Instead of just standing there and taking whatever punishment was handed to them, they fought back.
But they fought back in unique ways triggered by the current in-game environment.
Forza’s Drivatar system would gain a lot from AI.
Instead of relying on real-world players to add difficulty, what if the NPCs all behaved like real players?
Learning where the enemies appear doesn’t take too long, and their weapons/armor never really changes.
Imagine applying an AI engine to those enemies.
Games like Euro Truck Sim 2 could be even more realistic with the use of AI powering things like traffic patterns.
As you play the game, they learn from your tactics and your loadouts.
Shooters such as this are an obvious choice to improve with AI.
They’d try and catch you unawares.
Games like iRacing could really benefit from AI-powered conversational models for player information.
This wouldn’t have to apply to enemies, either.
Like in Free Guy, friendly NPCs could benefit in the same way from AI smarts.
Or how about an extension of the Forza Drivatar system?
Microsoft leveraged the cloud as far back as Crackdown 3, it could easily do the same with AI.
Already this is built to mimic real players, but what if they were AI-driven instead?
Real-world racing drivers are always learning, adapting, and honing their skills.
Drivatars are way more limited, but AI opponents could easily act like real drivers.
Imagine a simulator such as Euro Truck Sim 2.
AI could do a better job without this same level of input.
The obvious one is better conversational models.
Instead of repetition and pre-selected choices, AI could promote more natural dialog and actual conversations.
I keep thinking of the spotter in iRacing as a good yet fairly simple example.
Right now, it’s OK, and there are third-party tools that do a better job.
But with AI power, the spotter could actually mimic the real-world equivalent.
Microsoft, with Azure at its disposal, is perfectly placed to leverage AI in its first-party games.
Something needs to power it, after all.
There are endless possibilities for this tech in gaming, and these are just a few.
And I, for one, would be really excited about that.
