KRAFTON and NVIDIA Unveil AI-Powered Co-Playable Characters at CES 2025

KRAFTON unveils co-playable character powered by NVIDIA ACE

Co-playable characters in KRAFTON's upcoming life simulation game InZOI / Captured from NVIDIA's YouTube By Nam Hyun-woo KRAFTON unveiled an agentic framework in collaboration with NVIDIA at CES 2025 in Las Vegas, Tuesday (local time). The partnership combines KRAFTON's renowned game development expertise with NVIDIA's cutting-edge AI technology. KRAFTON showcased an AI innovation set to redefine the future of the global gaming industry. A co-playable character (CPC) is an AI companion designed to interact with gamers, powered by an on-device small language model for gaming built with NVIDIA ACE technology. Unlike traditional non-player characters, CPCs can engage and cooperate with users, understanding and responding to game situations in a human-like manner. KRAFTON plans to expand the use of CPC technology across its gaming portfolio, including the PUBG IP franchise and InZOI, to enhance the user experience. "CES 2025 marks a significant milestone for KRAFTON as we work to unveil AI technology that will revolutionize the gaming industry," Krafton CEO Kim Chang-han said. "We plan to closely collaborate with NVIDIA to drive the transformation of the user experience with AI-powered innovation built with NVIDIA ACE, such as CPC, that's poised to redefine the future of gaming." Keita Iida, vice president of developer relations at NVIDIA, said, "AI is transforming the way games are created and played. By bringing our innovative AI technology, such as NVIDIA ACE, to a range of their live games, KRAFTON is unlocking co-playable characters for new, unique experiences." Since establishing its Deep Learning Division in 2022, KRAFTON has secured key AI technologies, including natural language processing, 3D vision and animation, voice synthesis (STT/TTS), reinforcement learning and multi-modal learning. The company also showcased its R&D capabilities by presenting several papers at leading AI conferences, including NeurIPS, ICML and ICLR.

KRAFTON Unveiled Co-Playable Character Built with NVIDIA ACE at CES 2025 By Investing.com

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--KRAFTON (CEO Changhan ~CH' Kim) unveiled an agentic framework in collaboration with NVIDIA at the world's largest IT exhibition, CES 2025, held in Las Vegas. The collaboration merges the strengths of KRAFTON, renowned for its exceptional game development expertise, with cutting-edge AI technology from NVIDIA. KRAFTON showcased AI innovation for games that's poised to redefine the future of the global gaming industry. A CPC is an AI companion that can interact with gamers, enabled by an on-device SLM (NASDAQ:SLM) (Small Language Model) for gaming, built with NVIDIA ACE technology. Unlike traditional NPCs (Non-Player Characters), CPCs are equipped with the ability to interact and cooperate with users, as they understand and respond to game situations in a human-like manner. KRAFTON plans to expand the use of CPC technology across its gaming portfolio, including the PUBG IP Franchise and inZOI, to transform the user experience. CH Kim, CEO of KRAFTON, said, CES 2025 marks a significant milestone for KRAFTON as we work to unveil AI technology that will revolutionize the gaming industry. He continued, We plan to closely collaborate with NVIDIA to drive the transformation of the user experience with AI-powered innovation built with NVIDIA ACE, such as CPC, that's poised to redefine the future of gaming. Keita Iida, Vice President, Developer Relations at NVIDIA, said, AI is transforming the way games are created and played. By bringing our innovative AI technology, such as NVIDIA ACE, to a range of their live games, KRAFTON is unlocking co-playable characters for new, unique experiences. Since establishing its Deep Learning Division in 2022, KRAFTON has secured various core AI technologies such as LM/NLP (Natural Language Processing), 3D Vision & Animation, Voice Synthesis (STT/TTS), RL (Reinforcement Learning), and Multi-modal Learning. In addition, KRAFTON demonstrated the company's R&D competitiveness by presenting several papers at international AI conferences, including NeurIPS (Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems), ICML (International Conference on Machine Learning), and ICLR (International Conference on Learning Representations).

KRAFTON Showcases AI Model ~CPC' Built with NVIDIA ACE at CES 2025 By Investing.com

Hands-on demo features CPC technology applied to the PUBG IP Franchise and inZOI LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--KRAFTON (CEO Changhan ~CH' Kim) set a new milestone for the global gaming industry with the introduction of ~CPC' (Co-Playable Character), an NPC (Non-Player Character) brought to life with generative AI, in collaboration with NVIDIA, at the world's largest IT exhibition CES 2025. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250108628507/en/ On January 8, KRAFTON joined NVIDIA at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Las Vegas. KRAFTON showcased an innovative AI experience built with NVIDIA ACE technologies, presenting a bold vision for the future of gaming. Kangwook Lee, Head of the Deep Learning Division at KRAFTON, demonstrated CPC, describing it as a groundbreaking character concept enabled by an on-device SLM (NASDAQ:SLM) (Small Language Model) for gaming, built with NVIDIA ACE. He explained that unlike traditional NPCs, a CPC is capable of dynamic interactions with players, including real-time conversations, strategic cooperation, and flexible responses tailored to in-game scenarios. Lee highlighted KRAFTON's commitment to expanding CPC technology across its gaming portfolio, including the PUBG IP Franchise and inZOI. He stated, We will continue to innovate user experiences by integrating CPC into our games and aim to establish it as a benchmark for the gaming industry. He added, Our collaboration with NVIDIA is a testament to the transformative potential of AI in gaming, and we plan to work closely together to push the boundaries of what is possible. KRAFTON also presented video demonstrations of CPC technology in action within its games. In the case of PUBG IP Franchise, the video revealed ~PUBG Ally,' a CPC capable of engaging in casual conversations, adapting strategies, and refining gameplay to align with user dynamics. For inZOI, the demonstration highlighted ~Smart Zoi,' a CPC with distinct personality traits and emotional depth, offering highly immersive simulation experiences through lifelike interactions with players. During CES 2025, KRAFTON set up demos with NVIDIA where attendees could experience CPC-integrated gameplay and its innovation firsthand.

Krafton, Nvidia draw response at showcase with AI co-playable characters

Lee Kang-wook, head of Krafton's Deep Learning Division, introduces the company's co-playable character at Fontainebleau Las Vegas, Wednesday (local time). Courtesy of Krafton By Nam Hyun-woo LAS VEGAS -- Game developer Krafton introduced its artificial intelligence (AI) model co-playable character (CPC), which is a nonplayer character (NPC) capable of dynamic interactions with players developed in collaboration with Nvidia, during the CES 2025 tech trade show in Las Vegas, Wednesday (local time). Krafton participated in Nvidia's showcase of Nvidia Ace technology at Fontainebleau Las Vegas, presenting the CPC introduced for its flagship title, PUBG: Battlegrounds, as the model case of Nvidia Ace technology. The technology enables game characters to use generative AI "to perceive, plan and act like human players." Lee Kang-wook, head of Krafton's Deep Learning Division, demonstrated the CPC during the event, describing it as "a groundbreaking character concept enabled by an on-device small-language model for gaming." Unlike traditional NPCs, a CPC is capable of having dynamic interactions with the player, including real-time conversations, strategic cooperation and flexible responses tailored to in-game scenarios, enabling the player to actually team up with NPCs that act like human players. "We will continue to innovate user experiences by integrating CPCs into our games and aim to establish it as a benchmark for the gaming industry," Lee said. "Our collaboration with Nvidia is a testament to the transformative potential of AI in gaming, and we plan to work closely together to push the boundaries of what is possible." In a video, Krafton revealed PUBG Ally, a CPC capable of engaging in casual conversations, adapting strategies and refining gameplay to align with user dynamics. Along with PUBG: Battlegrounds, CPCs will be introduced in a number of PUBG franchise titles, as well as life simulation game inZOI. For inZOI, the demonstration highlighted Smart Zoi, a CPC with distinct personality traits and emotional depth, offering highly immersive simulation experiences through lifelike interactions with players. Krafton set up demonstrations in collaboration with Nvidia to give attendees a hands-on experience of CPC-integrated gameplay.