Xbox has announced a multi-year partnership with Inworld AI, an M12-portfolio company that aims to provide game creators with advanced AI tools to enhance their creativity, reduce complexity, and elevate player experiences in the gaming world.

Since the early days of gaming, the industry has come a long way through harnessing the power of artificial intelligence. Over time, game creators introduced procedurally generated worlds, enhancing the replay experience and variability. Recently, game developers have started experimenting with AI Large Language Models (LLMs), such as OpenAI’s GPT, opening up new horizons for creativity in game development.

Haiyan Zhang, general manager of Gaming AI, Xbox on Monday, November 6, said: “At Xbox, the belief is that with better tools, creators can craft even more extraordinary games. This partnership with Inworld AI signifies a crucial step forward in realising this vision. It brings together the expertise of Inworld in working with generative AI models for character development, Microsoft’s cutting-edge cloud-based AI solutions, and the technical insights from Microsoft Research, all complemented by Team Xbox’s strengths in making accessible and responsible creator tools for developers worldwide.”

The key highlights of this partnership include the development of an accessible, responsibly designed multi-platform AI toolset to assist and empower creators in dialogue, story, and quest design. This toolset comprises an AI design co-pilot that will empower game designers to explore more creative ideas by converting prompts into detailed scripts, dialogue trees, quests, and more, and an AI character runtime engine which can be seamlessly integrated into the game client, allowing for dynamically-generated stories, quests, and dialogue, thereby providing players with entirely new narratives to experience.

The approach to AI in this partnership is founded on three core principles: meaningful innovation, empowering individuals and organisations, and responsibility. The ultimate goal is to simplify the process for developers, enabling them to bring their visions to life, push the boundaries of gaming, and experiment to enhance gameplay and player engagement.