Microsoft wants to use new AI to preserve and revive classic Xbox games
Microsoft’s new generative AI could potentially help with Xbox game preservation
- Muse is a “first-of-its-kind” generative AI model that can “create consistent and diverse gameplay rendered by AI”
- Microsoft says the AI has the potential to help developers with creative ideation and preserve classic Xbox games
- Muse was developed in partnership with Xbox Game Studios’ Ninja Theory and trained using Bleeding Edge
In a lengthy blog post, Fatima Kardar, corporate vice president of gaming AI at Microsoft, explained that Microsoft Research has been working with Ninja Theory to develop a world and human action model (WHAM) named Muse, which it describes as a “first-of-its-kind generative AI model trained on Ninja Theory’s multiplayer battle arena game, Bleeding Edge.”According to Kardar, Muse, with its “detailed understanding of the 3D game world, including game physics and how the game reacts to players’ controller actions,” allows the model to create gameplay rendered by AI. Microsoft sees this as a “major step toward generative AI models that can empower game creators.”
Although it’s still early days, Kadar says Muse is “pushing the boundaries of what we thought was possible” and is being used to develop a real-time playable AI model trained on other first-party Xbox games. Microsoft says it sees “potential for this work to one day benefit both players and game creators: from allowing us to revive nostalgic games to faster creative ideation.”
When it comes to using this AI for game preservation, Kadar says there are “countless classic games tied to aging hardware are no longer playable by most people” and that thanks to this breakthrough, Microsoft is “exploring the potential for Muse to take older back catalog games from our studios and optimize them for any device. We believe this could radically change how we preserve and experience classic games in the future and make them accessible to more players. To imagine that beloved games lost to time and hardware advancement could one day be played on any screen with Xbox is an exciting possibility for us.
“Another opportunity we are exploring is how Muse can help game teams prototype new gameplay experiences during the creative process and introduce new content — taking games players already love and enabling our developers to inject new experiences for them to enjoy, or even enable you to participate in the creation process.”
With some of the best Xbox games lost to time, the game preservation stuff here all sounds pretty interesting, even if it all seems a bit hypothetical at this stage. What do you make of this? Let us know your thoughts down in the comments.
Originally posted by www.trueachievements.com
