Tencent, Microsoft, Amazon pitch AI tools for video game developers at ChinaJoy expo

Big Tech companies, from Tencent Holdings to Microsoft and Amazon.com, have rushed to pitch their artificial intelligence (AI) tools to Chinese video gaming firms at ChinaJoy, the country’s biggest annual digital entertainment expo in Shanghai.

Shenzhen-based Tencent, which runs the world’s biggest video gaming business by revenue, is offering a range of AI services to cover the “full life cycle” of game development, Tencent Cloud Internet Industry general manager Chen Liang told the South China Morning Post on Friday at ChinaJoy, which concludes on Monday.

“AI has been used in video games as early as the 1990s,” Chen said. “But the current generative AI (GenAI) boom has raised people’s expectations of the entire market.”

Citing an example, Chen said large language models – the technology underpinning GenAI services like ChatGPT – have helped shorten the time for content generation in video games. “There are many things we want to do in the future, including using AI in character production, scene production and making bots,” he said.

Tencent Cloud, which is responsible for the internet giant’s AI operations, has been working on Wuthering Waves – a hit action role-playing mobile game developed by Guangzhou-based Kuro Games – since the project was started several years ago, according to Chen.

The Tencent unit accounts for 42.9 per cent of cloud services adoption in the domestic gaming sector during the second half of 2023, the company cited an IDC report as saying. The report also said more than 90 per cent of China’s top gaming companies, including Perfect World and 37Games, use Tencent Cloud’s solutions.