Our coverage of a trailer for a single-player game might seem like we’ve lost the plot on paper, but this is less about the game itself and more about what MMORPG studio NCsoft is up to in practice, particularly as the trailer utilizes new graphical and character AI tech developed by the studio to craft a digital version of NCsoft CCO Taekjin Kim.
A press release tied to the trailer’s launch zeroes in on NCsoft’s new tools to make the digital executive, with newly developed AI technology, graphics by Unreal Engine 5, and text-to-speech synthesis, all of which combines to create an AI character whose mouth animates precisely to what words are being said, speaks in a human dialect, and moves as naturally as possible.
As for Project M itself, it’s being developed for consoles and looks like other narrative action titles like Detroit: Become Human or The Dark Pictures Anthology games, with QTE events and button prompt choices that branch the story along in different ways.
Obviously, these high-fidelity AI tricks are being focused on a single-player title, but it is interesting to see what NCsoft is up to with the tech, while also intriguing to consider where these advancements could be used in other titles. See for yourself in the video after the cut.
