Ubisoft accelerates player-facing generative AI investment amid restructuring and layoffs

As Ubisoft struggles to get games out the door, it's investing even more into generative AI

Amid layoffs and cancellations, the publisher plans to up the ante on AI. Ubisoft announced sweeping changes to its business today, confirming more layoffs, major internal restructuring, and the cancelation of seven projects including Prince of Persia: The Sand of Time. At the same time it renewed its pledge to double down on generative AI. In a document released today Ubisoft describes its "radically new value-creation" business model, which it claims will help it become "a more gamer-centric organization" thanks to a "rightsized and more agile organization". It goes on: "The new operating model will further empower the execution of the Group's strategy, centered on Open World Adventures and GaaS-native experiences, supported by targeted investments, deeper specialization, and cutting-edge technology, including accelerated investments behind player-facing Generative AI." Ubisoft's embrace of generative AI is nothing new. Last year the company revealed Teammates, a "playable generative AI research project" featuring AI-powered NPCs capable of dynamically interacting with the player. Teammates was an evolution of an earlier experiment dubbed Neo NPCs, and it's easy to see how it could be implemented in future Ubisoft games, especially its sprawling open world affairs. But Ubisoft's "accelerated investments" in gen AI come at a time when studios are facing pressure to move away from the tech. When Larian revealed last month it is experimenting with AI, the blowback was so severe that the studio had to host a damage control Reddit AMA all about it. Arc Raiders' near perfect launch was clouded by its implementation of gen AI. Attitudes towards gen AI will undoubtedly keep shifting with time (though it's hard to imagine it'll go the way of NFTs, which Ubisoft also embraced), but if Ubisoft announced Far Cry AI right now it's fair to say the backlash would be enormous. Still, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot seems extremely enthused by the tech, claiming last year that it's "as big a revolution for our industry as the shift to 3D."

As other devs commit to AI as a development tool, Ubisoft is doubling down on "player-facing generative AI"

So far, most major game studios have presented AI as a behind-the-scenes tool that can help developers create games more efficiently - not necessarily something that'll directly generate content you'll actually interact with in-game. Ubisoft is going a step further, revealing as part of today's restructuring announcement that it plans to shove generative AI directly in players' faces. In a press release accompanying today's news, Ubisoft says its plans, which are centered on open-world games and live service titles, will be "supported by targeted investments, deeper specialization, and cutting-edge technology, including accelerated investments behind player-facing Generative AI." The key phrase there is "player-facing," suggesting that Ubisoft's plans to put generative AI content directly in front of players is moving forward in a big way. The company has been teasing AI-powered NPCs for years now, and more recently offered an extensive breakdown of the AI companion tech it calls Teammates. Last year, CEO Yves Guillemot said that AI will make open-world games "your world" with fewer "pre-scripted things." Given how generative AI content has worked up to this point, I suspect we're more likely to see the drudgery of modern 100-hour open-world games start to feel even more like slop. Nexon CEO Junghun Lee famously noted last year that "it's important to assume that every game company is now using AI." For many major figures in the game industry - including the likes of Hideo Kojima, Todd Howard, and Gabe Newell - AI has value as a tool, but not as something that should be generating content better built by creative minds. I guess we'll soon see how Ubisoft's opposite approach works out.