[AI Revolution](39) Netmarble AI Center Pioneering Uncharted Paths

The lifespan of a game is determined by how long users stay within the game world. This is an eternal challenge for game companies. They must enhance the fun of the game while minimizing user inconvenience. Netmarble found the answer in artificial intelligence (AI).

Netmarble embodies a DNA of pioneering new paths in AI research that no one has ventured before. This is why the AI-dedicated research organization established in 2018, the ‘AI Center,’ is divided into the Magellan Room and the Columbus Room. Like the two figures who pioneered new routes, the intention is to deliver new gaming enjoyment to users through AI technology.

‘Magellan Project’: AI Playing Games Like Humans

The Magellan Room is responsible for creating ‘intelligent games.’ The core of intelligent games is to use AI to provide continuous enjoyment to users. A representative example is the AI player. The AI player experiences actual game content alongside users and learns their patterns. For instance, bugs that could occur in game content, which previously had to be found by humans playing directly, are now detected by AI instead. Additionally, by experiencing game elements such as dungeons and hunting, it identifies and adjusts situations where the game difficulty becomes too low or too high, reducing the fun users feel.

The Magellan Room possesses various technologies such as AI-based voice command technology and machine translation. A representative example of voice command technology is the voice AI system ‘Monica’ introduced in ‘A3: Still Alive.’ In the game, if you say, “Monica, start the main quest,” the quest is automatically executed. Machine translation plays a role in correctly recognizing whether the word ‘Daejeon’ refers to a place name or means ‘battle.’ This is an essential technology for global users.

Recently, research is underway to create distinctive voices considering the appearance and personality of metahumans. They are also developing technology to automate tasks such as adjusting metahumans’ movements and facial expressions, which were previously done manually, using AI.

‘Columbus Project’: Gathering Global User Data

The Columbus Room researches technologies based on global user data. Its goal is to analyze the entire process from user game entry to exit to improve the game lifecycle.

Each Netmarble game holds different events even within the same genre. This is the result of utilizing Columbus Room’s technology, which analyzes detailed information about user tendencies and patterns using big data. Columbus Room’s big data-based technology is also used in marketing. While releasing several new titles in the first quarter of this year, Netmarble was able to save 11% on marketing costs compared to last year. This was because they could predict marketing outcomes in advance through big data-based technology.

"AI Development Is Yielding Meaningful Results"

Netmarble is fully committed to AI research, believing that AI technology will directly connect to game enjoyment in the future.

Last year, among domestic game companies, Netmarble had the highest proportion of investment in research and development (R&D). Netmarble invested 32% of its revenue in R&D. It is known that a significant portion of this was used for AI technology research.

Through generous investment in AI, Netmarble has been recognized multiple times worldwide. In November 2021, at ‘EMNLP 2021,’ the world’s top conference in natural language processing, Netmarble became the first Korean game company to win the AI translation post-editing technology challenge. In December of the same year, at ‘SIGGRAPH Asia 2021,’ the world’s largest computer graphics conference, they attracted global attention by unveiling voice-based facial animation generation technology.

Netmarble plans to expand the application of AI technology in games. On the 1st, at a new title announcement event, Netmarble CEO Kwon Young-sik said, “We have conducted a considerable amount of R&D related to image AI through the AI Center,” adding, “We consider it a technology that improves game development efficiency and are gradually utilizing it.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.