Well this is interesting, isn't it? As reported by Wired, Ubisoft's research and development division has unveiled an artificial intelligence that helps game developers catch bugs. The AI is called Commit Assistant, and it's basically designed to spot potential issues before programmers finalise their work.
Apparently, Ubisoft ran ten years worth of code from various games through Commit Assistant, effectively teaching it where developers had previously made mistakes. Using this information, the AI can pick out problems that it recognises. Sounds pretty cool, eh?
Ultimately, if Commit Assistant can fulfil its role, Ubisoft can, in theory, cut down on costs when it comes to testing. According to the publisher, squashing bugs and polishing games can eat away at up to 70 per cent of development costs, so it's no wonder this AI was given the green light.
[source wired.co.uk]
Comments 19
"squashing bugs and polishing games can eat away at up to 70 per cent of development costs"
Ubisoft must have saved 70% of the budget developing Assasins creed unity.
And what happens when the AI advances so much, it becomes self aware? What then, Ubisoft?
You were so preoccupied with whether or not you could, you didn't stop to think if you should.
@LieutenantFatman Then it starts implementing micro-transactions and loot boxes on its own. It learned from Ubisoft after all...
@Octane Beat me to it!
I wonder what would happen if they put in the code for some of Bethesda's games. 😏
So Ubisoft games can now be not so buggy en release!?
So now they can be reg games that’s great but it does show how squit Ubisoft’s QA can be if there is any to begin with
"Groundbreaking AI cuts down on 70% of development costs, in the age of microtransactions and loot boxes being essential because of increasing development costs. Hurrah."
Flash forward a couple years.
"Automated game development processes lead to companies laying off hundreds of staff members, whilst gamers complain that experiences are now sterile, soulless affairs. Boo."
This will result in judgement day
@themcnoisy AC:Unity was buggy but worse on Console. The main issue was that is was too ambitious for the hardware and even pushed PC hardware to its limits.
What it means though is not necessarily cheaper games but a higher turnover. Instead of games taking 3years for example with a year+ being testing, bug fixing and polishing, that game can be released much earlier. Of course it will cut down on cost too - not having to spend the money on staffing for play testers, the developers time on that game and overheads but I doubt it will be reflected on the pricing structure. Instead of those devs doing all the bug fixing etc, they will be working on the 'next' game much sooner and thus increasing the turnover of games.
I bet the 'cost' difference won't be that high - not with increasing marketing costs but for Ubisoft as a whole, releasing more games, especially those that are less buggy, will bring in more revenue per year. Instead of working on the fixes and play testing, those devs could also be working on new content/DLC for these games too.
Well it looks like theyve allready been using an AI running algoritms based on their previous open world games for almost a decade now, so this seems logical XD
AI is going to be on suicide watch when it seems their games.
Bethesda should immediately license this lol
The AI will have a breakdown during the delivery crunch and form an indie studio.
@ArkhamKnerd the AI would probably kill itself upon seeing everything it has to deal with 😂😂
Since they have problems with bugs all the time, would that not mean that the AI itself could be plagued by the same issues? A buggy AI trying to find and fix buggy games?
ubi going from strengths to strengths in my eyes
Maybe now we will get big free releases to an extent
This is incredible !
All well and good but if this completely replaces QA testing or betas, it could be a problem in the long term..
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