EA Unveils AI Prompting for Game Development

At the recent EA Investor Day, Electronic Arts’ Chief Strategy Officer, Mihir Vaidya, took the stage to unveil the company’s transformative vision for the future of gaming, powered by generative AI. With over 100 AI projects underway, EA is not merely dabbling in AI but is strategically positioning it at the core of its long-term value creation.

Three Pillars of AI Strategy

Vaidya outlined EA’s AI endeavors across three strategic categories:

1. Efficiency: Streamlining development processes.

2. Expansion: Enhancing existing gaming experiences.

3. Transformation: Pioneering new realms of interactive entertainment.

While projects in efficiency and expansion are already enhancing current titles, it’s the transformation category that promises to redefine the gaming landscape.

Imagination to Creation: Democratizing Game Development

EA envisions a future where players become creators without the need for coding expertise. Vaidya posed a compelling question: “What if we took all our proprietary data and technology and all the amazing AI tools that we’re building for our own developers and put them in the hands of our players so that our players can convert their imaginations into creations without coding expertise?”

To illustrate this, EA showcased a concept video where two friends effortlessly build and modify a game world using natural language prompts. They create characters, design levels, and even set gameplay rules in real-time. This is made possible by leveraging EA’s extensive proprietary dataset, which includes:

• Hundreds of thousands of high-quality 3D assets.

• Millions of lines of code.

• Billions of gameplay hours.

• Trillions of telemetry events.

This vast reservoir of data is instrumental in training custom AI models that can interpret and execute player commands instantaneously.

More Believable Characters: The Next Frontier

Another focal point of EA’s AI strategy is the creation of more lifelike and interactive characters. Vaidya emphasized that players form meaningful, two-sided relationships with video game characters—relationships that can be deepened with AI.

As a live demonstration, EA developed an AI-powered digital likeness of Jude Bellingham, the cover star of FC 25. Attendees had the opportunity to engage with this AI Jude in real-time, experiencing a new level of interactivity. In a snippet shared during the presentation, when asked about playing at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, the AI Jude responded:

“It’s like a dream come true. Stepping onto the pitch for the first time, it was a surreal feeling. I mean, I grew up watching Real Madrid. I even played as them in EA games with my brother Joe. So to actually play for real in front of all those fans, it’s something you can’t really explain.”

While the visual fidelity wasn’t on par with EA’s AAA titles, the focus was on the dynamic interaction, hinting at the potential for future enhancements.

Project AIR: A New Social Ecosystem

Taking the concept of AI-driven interaction further, EA introduced Project AIR, an experimental social ecosystem where users can create, share, and interact with AI characters and experiences seamlessly.

In a concept video, a player creates a character named Ace Desai—a legendary venture capitalist—using a simple text prompt. The player and a friend then pitch business ideas to Ace in a dynamic and interactive session, facilitated by an AI co-pilot that enhances the experience with creative suggestions.

“What you just saw was an illustration of a new type of social ecosystem where friends can come together and share, create, and engage with AI characters and experiences in a matter of seconds,” Vaidya explained.

Planting Seeds for the Future

Vaidya acknowledged that these experiments might seem rudimentary compared to the polished AAA games EA is known for. However, he likened them to early YouTube videos—simple beginnings that have the potential to evolve into entirely new entertainment categories.

“At the core of many of these concepts are new types of inputs, specifically new types of engagement loops where anyone can play, connect, create, and watch all in a matter of seconds with their friends, powered by generative AI,” he said.

EA’s strategic positioning leverages its strengths in game development, technology, AI, and a vast proprietary dataset to explore these new frontiers.

Next Generation of Game Development

Electronic Arts is not just embracing AI as a tool for incremental improvement but is harnessing it to explore transformative opportunities. By empowering players to become creators and deepening the interactivity with game characters, EA aims to redefine the boundaries of gaming and interactive entertainment.

“While it may be hard to put an exact number on some of these experiments, know that we are very intentionally planting the seeds for the future,” Vaidya concluded.

As AI technology continues to advance, EA’s ambitious projects could very well usher in a new era where the line between players and creators blurs, leading to richer, more immersive experiences that extend beyond traditional gaming.