Some big AI related news today. Krafton (PUBG, owners of Tango Gameworks, Unknown Worlds, and more) announced this week that they are transforming into an "'AI-first' company."
Today's announcement states that they are going to undergo a "complete reorganization of the company's operational development system." They continue to say that they are "placing AI at the center of problem solving" with hopes that the new strategy will foster "change in individuals and organizations, increasing company-wide productivity, and accelerating mid- to long-term corporate value growth."
Krafton says that they will invest about 100 billion won (~$69.7 million USD) in a GPU cluster that will "supports multi-tiered tasks that require sophisticated reasoning and iterative planning, serving as the foundation for accelerating the implementation of Agentic AI." Krafton says their system will not just automate AI workflows "but also strengthen AI R&D and in-game AI services."
Krafton says that they hope to have the AI platform, data integration, and automation foundation all completed. After this initial step, the company says that they are setting aside about 30 billion won per year (~$20.9 million USD) to "actively support members to directly utilize various AI tools and apply them to their work."
CEO Kim Chang-han said, "Krafton will expand the growth opportunities of each member through the AI First strategy, expand creative attempts centered on player experience, and lead AI innovation in the game industry as a whole."
If you thought that was bad, it actually gets worse. Electronic Arts and Stability AI just announced a new partnership today. Stability AI is the company behind Stable Diffusion. Under this partnership with Electronic Arts, the two will "co-develop transformative AI models, tools, and workflows" for use in game development. The hope here is that these tools will speed up development while maintaining a high quality. Only one of those two things will happen for sure. Can you guess which one?
“Creativity has always been at the heart of everything our teams do,” says Kallol Mitra, VP of Creative Innovation at EA. “Together with Stability AI, we’re amplifying that creativity. Giving artists, designers, and developers the power to dream bigger and build more.”
“I use the term smarter paintbrushes,” says Steve Kestell, Head of Technical Art for EA SPORTS. “We are giving our creatives the tools to express what they want. Tools that will allow creativity to get directly from people’s minds, and into our experiences.”
“I use the term smarter paintbrushes,” says Steve Kestell, Head of Technical Art for EA SPORTS. “We are giving our creatives the tools to express what they want. Tools that will allow creativity to get directly from people’s minds, and into our experiences.”
For years, Machine Learning and AI have enabled our teams to develop technologies like HeadStart, which leverages photos to create authentic in-game likenesses. This partnership will allow us to bring that same speed and scale to the entire 3D space by accelerating the content creation process and ultimately allowing our artists to do more.
Beyond individual assets, the partnership explores AI systems that can pre-visualize entire 3D environments from a series of intentional prompts, allowing artists to creatively direct the generation of game content.
These advancements open exciting new doors for rapid prototyping and visual storytelling, allowing artists and developers to ideate, visualize, and refine gameplay experiences at a faster pace and with greater scale.
Beyond individual assets, the partnership explores AI systems that can pre-visualize entire 3D environments from a series of intentional prompts, allowing artists to creatively direct the generation of game content.
These advancements open exciting new doors for rapid prototyping and visual storytelling, allowing artists and developers to ideate, visualize, and refine gameplay experiences at a faster pace and with greater scale.
