EA has over 100 artificial intelligence projects in the works, including multiple generative AI technologies.
During today's Investor's Day 2024 stream, EA announced that it was going all-in on AI. Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson outlined many of the key ways that the billion-dollar publisher currently is and plans to use AI across its multitude of games, content, and services.
Wilson also hyped up generative AI, saying that it will be instrumental in unlocking EA's long-term value for investors and consumers alike. EA will use its artificial intelligence tools across three key areas: Efficiency, to speed along game development; Expansion, to greatly enhance the worlds available to devs and gamers; and Transformation, which could completely revolutionize the way users create, share, and play custom games content.
"This pursuit of innovation has led our games to be at the forefront of the technology curve. AI in its different forms has always been central to this creative journey. We all remember playing against the AI, and it has evolved in today's innovations in generative AI," EA CEO Andrew Wilson said during the stream.
"This remarkable technology is not merely a buzzword for us. It's the very core of our business.
"Beyond writing, or coding AI, to ensure the believability of our characters, we have always used forms of machine learning and AI across our games and processes.
"Right now, we have over 100 active novel AI projects across 3 strategic categories: Efficiency, expansion, and transformation.
"For years we have talked about our games delivering experiences that are always new and different. We predict that with generative AI, we will truly be able to fulfill this promise for billions of people, for billions and billions of hours."
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Wilson goes on to highlight how EA is using AI for efficiency.
"This is not just about cost-savings. Efficiency is doing what we do today faster, cheaper, and it a higher quality. That means driving more iterations, more testing, and more high-quality content for our communities. It means removing obstacles for our game developers."
The CEO confirms that College Football 25 was developed using AI, saying that the tech was used to create the game's 150 unique stadiums and 11,000 player likenesses.
On Expansion, Wilson says:
"Expansion is about giving our creative teams an exponentially bigger canvas upon which to create, and richer colors so that they might paint more brilliant worlds. It's about our incredible teams creating characters with more depth and intelligence, telling stories that are more personal and nuanced, and bringing more authenticity and deeper immersion to our already unrivaled sports experiences."
When it comes to Transformation, EA has some incredibly ambitious ideas that could completely revolutionize how gamers create, share, and play customized content.
EA has created an experimental ChatGPT-like AI prompt tool that allows users to create in-game maps and jump right into the action, all through text language. You basically just tell the AI what you want, and it will render it instantly on the screen.
"Transformation is about looking far into the future for new ways to play, watch, create, and connect that aren't imagined today. We believe AI will greatly expand and transform the entertainment experience for user-generated content. It will accelerate how creators and innovators are building and delivering experiences rooted in self-expression, content creation, curation, and instant gratification."
EA wants to scale AI tech across all forms of its business, especially games with robust live services like its annualized sports titles. Other games like Skate and The Sims are also prime candidates for these experimental innovations.