Ubisoft Wants Next-Generation Consoles to Develop Better AI

Ubisoft has once again demanded for next-generation consoles to appear so that it can properly create a new and more advanced Artificial Intelligence software, in order to really deliver realistic open worlds, populated by lifelike characters.

Lots of companies have talked about the next generation of consoles in the last few months, as quite a lot of them are eagerly awaiting the arrival of devices like the PlayStation 4 or Xbox 720.

Ubisoft is one of the most vocal publishers in this call for new devices, as it highlighted earlier this year that new consoles would help developers innovate once more in terms of gameplay and experiences, and that they should appear "sooner rather than later."

Now, the executive director of production services at Ubisoft Montreal, Yves Jacquier, has also called out for more powerful consoles to be released, but only because the current ones can't allow developers to deliver experiences that impress through graphics, sound and clever AI, all at the same time.

"AI has always been the real battleground, " he told GamesIndustry.biz. "The challenge is that, if you see an AI coming, you've failed. And that's a problem we have to overcome as we create the impression of flawless, seamless worlds. In general the industry expects that graphics will not be a strong feature any more... Obviously, graphics are better for marketing purposes because you can show things. AI you can't show."

Current platforms can no longer support all the sophisticated technologies, so new consoles are needed if games are to become realistic enough to impress all sorts of players.

"Our challenge with the PlayStation 3 and Xbox [360] is that we're extremely limited in what we can do. It's a challenge for the engineers to provide nice graphics and nice AI and nice sound with a very small amount of memory and computation time. We think that the next generation of consoles won't have these limits any more. Games might have more realistic graphics and more on-screen, but what's the value of making something more realistic and better animated if you have poor AI?"

Recent reports indicate that both Sony and Microsoft are set to introduce their new consoles next year, and even release them on the market before 2012. This is just speculation, however, so Ubisoft still has to make due with current devices like the PS3 or Xbox 360, until new ones arrive.