Following the news that CCP Games had bought itself out from owner Pearl Abyss for $120 million comes further news about how that deal has been financed.
AI outfit Google DeepMind has made a strategic investment into the company, taking a minority stake in the independent developer that has rebranded itself as Fenris Creations.
As part of the deal, DeepMind and Fenris have also entered a research partnership that’s focused on employing AI in the sort of complex systems enabled by games such as EVE Online.
Indeed, Google DeepMind will work with an offline version of EVE Online running on a local server to test and evaluate its models in a controlled setting. It hopes to improve features such as long-horizon planning, memory, and continual learning.
In turn, these learnings will feed back into the game, hopefully allowing the creation of new gameplay experiences.
“EVE is built to endure, and it only works if you’re willing to keep pushing into the future,” commented Fenris CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson.
“This transition gives us direct ownership, clear accountability, and the independence to invest in worlds that grow over decades. Our new structure and partners enable us to carry that legacy forward, continuously evolving a living universe and actively exploring what it can become, with forever in mind.”
“I’ve known Hilmar for many years and long admired his work, and I’m thrilled to partner with him and the fantastic team at Fenris Creations to explore new gaming experiences and advance AI research safely inside a player-driven universe as amazingly complex as EVE Online,” added Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis.