KRAFTON has announced that its direct rival to EA’s The Sims, inZOI, will be the first game to take advantage of NVIDIA ACE tech to enhance its NPCs. These new AI-powered NPCs will be called CPCs (co-playable characters), and below you can find a showcase video for them.
Going into more details, a CPC is an AI companion that can interact with gamers, enabled by an on-device 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.
In short, Smart Zoi will dynamically adjust the behaviors of the NPCs according to their traits and the situation they are in. This will result in more diverse and personalized characters.
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 revolutionise 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, also added:
“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.”
To be honest, I’m really curious to see these AI-powered NPCs in action. In theory, this should open the gates to more immersive games. So, I’m interested to see what devs will be able to achieve with it.
inZOI will hit Steam Early Access on March 28th. You can also find here its official PC requirements.
Enjoy and stay tuned for more!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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