Teammates is a first-person shooter designed around AI-powered squad mates that the publisher sees as the future
Despite the fact that many gamers seem to dislike or even outright hate AI-generated content in games, Ubisoft is pushing forward with it and now playtesting a shooter experiment built around AI-powered NPCs that can react to voice commands in real-time. Will it help the publisher regain some stability as it continues to struggle? I’m not sure. All I can think about is the last time Ubisoft jumped on a tech fad with NFTs.
On November 21, after a delayed earnings call, Ubisoft revealed Teammates, which the company refers to as its “first playable generative AI research project.” Built in the Snowdrop Engine, the same tech that powers games like The Division 2 and Star Wars Outlaws, Teammates is a first-person shooter that includes an AI assistant named Jaspar and two AI-powered squadmates called Pablo and Sofia. Players can command these two to help them solve puzzles or engage in combat using “natural” voice commands. Meanwhile, Jaspar can help track missions, offer advice, and provide guidance when needed.
Teammates is built by the same team behind Ubisoft’s Neo NPCs, which the company showed off in 2024 at GDC. The main goal of those AI-powered NPCs was to provide characters who can “dynamically” react to players in real-time, but within guidelines established by Ubisoft designers. The company said that it had guardrails in place to help stop the AI companions from hallucinating, being overly toxic, or going completely off script. But even Ubisoft admitted in an interview with Game Developer that Teammates and its tech were still rough around the edges.
In interviews about Teammates, Ubisoft tries to make the case that this tech won’t remove the human element from video game development. I find that hard to believe, considering that over the last two years or so, the studio has laid off over 600 employees as it cuts costs and struggles to ship games people get excited about. I’m not sure NPCs that sort of listen to you when you tell them to do something is going to turn things around for Ubisoft, but it could potentially let them gut even more of the company while pivoting to AI moonshots at a time when the company’s future has never been more uncertain.
“Games of tomorrow will listen, understand, and react to players far more than today, and our research gives a glimpse of what adaptive, generative play could add on top of proven game systems,†Ubisoft director of GenAI gameplay Xavier Manzanares told Variety. “It’s the first time we’ve shared an experiment this early with players, but our goal is to pave the way with a strong technology layer so our creators can start imagining the value it could bring to their project and players.â€
And who even knows if Ubisoft will still be developing AI-powered content and tools in a few years? Remember, it wasn’t that long ago that Ubisoft was all in on NFTs and the metaverse. Sure, Ubisoft technically hasn’t completely given up on either. But it’s pretty clear now that the company is moving on to AI as the next big thing that it hopes can convince investors that it is on the cutting edge of the future and deserving of more money, please.
