As a seasoned gamer with decades of experience under my belt, I can honestly say that the advancements in AI technology as demonstrated by Electronic Arts (EA) in their latest release, College Football 25, has left me utterly astounded. The sheer scale and detail of the game, featuring over 16,000 character models, would have been unimaginable just a few years ago without this revolutionary technology.
According to Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson, integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology was essential for developing College Football 25 that met quality standards and left fans impressed. During EA’s recent earnings presentation, Wilson explained that AI not only enhanced but also sped up the development process of the game.
Without AI, it wouldn’t have been possible for us to achieve the level of College Football production we did, despite having spent numerous years perfecting our team and their skills. This was a significant milestone, as we hadn’t done this in a decade. The quality of gameplay and visual realism we managed to create was a result of countless years of dedicated work from our exceptional teams, but was also significantly enhanced and expedited by AI technology. To be honest, something like this would have been unattainable for us less than two or three years ago.
Before starting the development, Electronic Arts (EA) clarified that manually creating thousands of players for CFB 25 by scanning each one into the game and using manual labor alone would not be feasible. Instead, EA opted for AI and machine learning tools to build the character models. EA fed in a vast array of head shapes, hairstyles, skin tones, complexions, beard styles, and eyebrow types into the model. With this information, along with a single reference image of the athlete or coach in question, EA stated they could generate the player likenesses in the game.
All in all, the College Football 25 game includes approximately 11,390 genuine athletes, plus around 5,000 virtual player characters for use by coaches, spectators, and new players, bringing the total to over 16,000 unique character profiles.
For several years, the creation of College Football 25 was underway, but it gained significant momentum in February 2024 when Electronic Arts (EA) established Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) contracts with college athletes for this game. Remarkably, these agreements were sealed only five months before the game’s release in July 2024. According to Wilson, the use of machine-learning and AI technologies was instrumental in ensuring that College Football 25 was delivered both on schedule and with the desired level of quality.
The executive explained that EA chose to release College Football 25 only on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, rather than across various console generations, due to the fact that these platforms are attracting the largest number of players. In other words, they’re focusing on where the player communities are most active.
Wilson commented, “The rapid adoption on our new platforms indicates that our platform choices were indeed sound,” as College Football 25 managed to attract 5 million players within just a week of its launch.
Previously, Wilson discussed the potential advantages that AI might bring to EA’s games in the future, despite the possibility of job losses and displacement among human workers.
According to Wilson, EA performed a study encompassing all their development procedures and identified that approximately 60% of these processes have a strong potential for improvement through the use of generative AI. To illustrate this, Wilson mentioned an instance where developing a stadium in one of their sports games previously took six months; however, now it takes only six weeks. He further speculated that in the future, it could potentially be accomplished in just six days.
According to Wilson, EA aims to streamline its development processes by 30% using advanced AI technology. He mentioned that their goal is to expedite the process so they can start enjoying the creative aspects of game development sooner and release games at a faster pace, with the ultimate aim of achieving greatness more swiftly.
Previously, Wilson expressed concern that developments in artificial intelligence might result in job losses. He referred to this as a valid worry regarding the potential displacement of the workforce when it comes to AI. He mentioned that past significant changes such as the agricultural and industrial revolutions initially led to workforce displacement in the short term but subsequently brought about substantial new job opportunities. AI, according to him, might follow a similar pattern.
It’s clear that EA isn’t the only one expressing appreciation for AI; Microsoft, too, holds a significant stake in this technology. They’ve declared that AI will be integrated into every product they produce moving forward, even extending to their gaming platform like Xbox. Simultaneously, Microsoft carried out substantial workforce reductions as part of their strategy to focus more on AI development.
Video game voice actors and performers have gone on a work stoppage due to some apprehensions related to artificial intelligence. Nevertheless, Wilson seems unperturbed by this issue.
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2024-07-31 16:39