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Replica Studios introduces AI-Powered Smart NPCs for Unreal Engine

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Replica Studios, developer of a leading artificial intelligence (AI) voice platform for video games, has announced Replica Studios AI Powered Smart NPCs (non-playable characters), a plugin coming to Unreal Engine later this year. Smart NPCs are powered by OpenAI or the user’s own AI language model, and Replica’s library of over 120+ ethically licensed AI voices, allowing game developers to develop games at scale and create new dynamic gaming experiences.

To showcase the revolutionary technology, Replica has released a Smart NPC demo experience utilising a modified version of Unreal Engine’s Matrix Awakens sample project to showcase some of the features that will be available with the plugin. Watch the trailer here.

“At Replica, we believe AI Voice technology has two-fold potential for furthering narrative-heavy games: eliminating critical bottlenecks in the development process, enabling studios to tell ever bigger and immersive stories, and allowing for the creation of never seen before living-world gaming experiences that shape around the player in real-time,” said Shreyas Nivas, CEO of Replica Studios. “Smart NPCs will allow smaller studios who don’t have the resources to script and vocalise on scale to dream big and scale their games 10x or 100x into the epic adventure they’ve always wanted to make.”

In Replica’s Smart NPC Experience, AI-powered NPCs will dynamically respond to the player’s in-game voice in real time. Characters will change their dialogue, emotional tone and body gestures in reaction to how the player speaks to them. Replica Studios’ NPCs now have a broader range of emotions thanks to Replica’s recent Style Morphing update.

Game designers can also alter the information provided to the AI characters to instruct them to behave differently or have certain personalities, or incorporate their own AI language models to suit their project.

“Just as live service games and battle royale have emerged as popular gaming experiences in the last decade, we see AI creating a new category of virtual experiences known for depth of narrative and dynamic storytelling with hundreds of characters, ever expanding quests and stories,” said Nivas. “When teams begin adopting AI to create these new experiences, we will see the role of writers and narrative designers evolve. Rather than writing complete narrative arcs, they’ll create and fine-tune the conditions that power these AI Smart NPCs – game lore, backstories and motivations – to add a human element that will lead to an engaging live player experience.”

When Replica’s Smart NPC plugin launches for Unreal Engine later this year, game developers will be able to integrate Smart NPCs into their own projects to begin scaling up characters in their games. The plugin integrates AI language model smarts along with Replica’s text-to-speech models and animates the characters in real-time by outputting sound phonemes and timelines to match an audio stream, while using a customised blend space for facial animations to power accurate lip sync, and custom animation blueprints to send body gesture messages for NPCs during their listening, thinking and speaking phases. The result is a natural looking and behaving NPC that can surprise and delight players with thoughtful, funny, and provocative responses, depending on their personal contexts as well as the voice input directly captured from players’ microphones.

The demo will initially run as a cloud based solution but is working towards a locally based solution to give a low latency, multi-user concurrent live experience.

“Within the next technology hop we will see AI powered Smart NPC live games and virtual experiences with hundreds of live concurrent players and NPCs all together, with no more latency than a zoom video call that has hundreds of participants,” concluded Nivas.

Access to Replica Studios’ Smart NPC playable demo is available on the official website. To sign up for the Smart NPC beta, please visit the registration page. For more information about Smart NPCs, please read the official blog post.

George Miller (Gyorgy Molnar) started his career in content marketing and has started working as an Editor/Content Manager for our company in 2016. George has acquired many experiences when it comes to interviews and newsworthy content becoming Head of Content in 2017. He is responsible for the news being shared on multiple websites that are part of the European Gaming Media Network.

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Everything you need to know ahead of ESL Pro League Season 19

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The ESL Pro League (EPL) returns to St. Julian’s, Malta, for Season 19 on April 23 – May 12, 2024. The world’s biggest Counter-Strike league will see teams from around the world arrive on-site for three weeks of non-stop action, and only one team will emerge victorious as Champions.

Here is all you need to know about ESL Pro League Season 19

The 19th Season of the ESL Pro League will see the 32 best Counter-Strike teams compete for a total prize pool of $750,000, a win in the race to secure Intel® Grand Slam V, and a spot at IEM Cologne 2024. Commencing on April 23, contenders from around the globe will face off in Malta for a spot in the Playoffs. There, the six best teams will compete live in front of an intimate live audience at the InterContinental Malta on May 10 – 12, 2024.

Starting with the upcoming season, EPL will see some improvements to its schedule. While the number of teams and the tournament structure remain the same compared to recent seasons, the duration of the tournament has been adjusted to three weeks instead of five. To accommodate this change, two groups will be played simultaneously during the Group Stage, resulting in a more intense story for fans to follow.

Schedule and Format

Group Stage (April 23 – May 5):

  • Four groups of eight teams will compete in separate triple-elimination brackets
    • All matches are best-of-three
  • The top four teams from each group will advance to the Playoffs
    • Group Stage winners advance to the Quarterfinals
    • The Group Stage runner-ups advance to the Round of 12
    • The Group Stage third and fourth-place teams advance to the Round of 16

Playoffs (May 7 – 12):

  • The top sixteen teams will compete in a single-elimination bracket
    • All matches will be best-of-three, excluding the Grand Final which will be best-of-five
    • The third and fourth Quarterfinals, as well as both Semifinals and the Grand Final will be played out live on stage in front of an audience

Teams Attending

  • Astralis (Partner Team)
  • BIG (Partner Team)
  • Complexity (Partner Team)
  • ENCE (Partner Team)
  • FaZe Clan (Partner Team)
  • Fnatic (Partner Team)
  • FURIA (Partner Team)
  • G2 Esports (Partner Team)
  • HEROIC (Partner Team)
  • MOUZ (Partner Team)
  • Natus Vincere (Partner Team)
  • Ninjas in Pyjamas (Partner Team)
  • Team Liquid (Partner Team)
  • Team Vitality (Partner Team)
  • Monte (ESL Challenger Jönköping winner)
  • Virtus.pro (ESL Challenger Atlanta winner)
  • SAW (ESL World Ranking)
  • Team Falcons (ESL World Ranking)
  • GamerLegion (ESL World Ranking)
  • BetBoom Team (ESL World Ranking)
  • Eternal Fire (ESL World Ranking)
  • 3DMAX (ECL S46 Europe winner)
  • FORZE (ECL S46 Europe runner-up)
  • M80 (ECL S46 North America winner)
  • BOSS (ECL S46 North America runner-up)
  • The MongolZ (ECL S46 Asia-Pacific winner)
  • TYLOO (ECL S46 Asia-Pacific runner-up)
  • Imperial Esports (South American Qualifier winners)
  • Sharks Esports (South American Qualifier winners)
  • Pera Esports (European Conference winner)
  • Bad News Kangaroos (Oceanic Qualifier winner)
  • FlyQuest (ANZ Champs winner)

Prize Money (USD)

TOTAL $750,000
1st $170,000
2nd $80,000
3rd-4th $45,000
5th-8th $32,000
9th-12th $23,500
13th-16th $17,500
17th-20th $12,000
21st-28th $7,000
29th-32nd $3,500

Broadcast Talent

  • Hosts
    • “Tres “stunna” Saranthus
    • Freya “Freya” Spiers
  • A Stream
    • Jason “moses” O’Toole
    • Janko “YNk” Paunović
    • Mathieu “Maniac” Quiquerez
    • Harry “Harry” Russell
    • Hugo “Hugo” Byron
    • Henry “Henry” Greer
    • Chad “SPUNJ” Burchill
    • Alex “Machine” Richardson
  • B Stream
    • Neo “Ne0kai” Caine
    • Harvey “Skriv” Rodgers
    • Lucy “LucyLuce” Eastwood
    • Brandon “BDog” Rawlings
    • Travis “Trav” Landaw Mott

Where to Watch

The live broadcast will be available on FACEIT Watch, ESL FACEIT Group’s premier esports viewing platform created by esports fans for esports fans and open for all.

Featuring a unique multi-perspective view selector where users can watch their favorite player’s perspective directly next to the main event stream, a live chat, a kill cam, live-generated replays of key moments, a sound mixer, a rewards program, and more, FACEIT Watch revolutionises esports streaming by putting fans in control of their viewing experience.

Fans can also watch the action on the ESL Counter-Strike Twitch and YouTube channels. For those unable to tune in live, all matches will also be available to watch on-demand for free via YouTube.

For more information about ESL Pro League Season 19, and the latest updates on the event, please visit the official website, and follow ESL Counter-Strike on X, Facebook, and Instagram.

 

 

The post Everything you need to know ahead of ESL Pro League Season 19 appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

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New Market Alert! Hacksaw Gaming Touch Down in Portugal with Solverde.pt

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Another incredible new market launch for Hacksaw Gaming, this time we’re taking a trip to Portugal with Solverde.pt. Exclusively showcasing our content until the 30th of April, this new partnership looks to be one with an exciting journey ahead.

Fan favourites Wanted Dead or a Wild, 2 Wild 2 Die, R.I.P City, Le Bandit and many more are now featured on the Hacksaw exclusive section of the Solverde.pt platform. At long last, Portuguese players can now immerse themselves in the Hacksaw experience, exploring a large catalogue of our games that demonstrate our creative mechanics and stunning visuals.

“Hacksaw has been a top request from Portuguese casino players and we always aim to know the market preferences and deliver what the customers want” says Américo Loureiro, Solverde.pt Director “We’re very proud to bring this groundbreaking studio to Portugal for the first time and have no doubt it will be a success”

Part of Solverde Group, which boasts more than 50 years of history, Solverde.pt was launched in 2017.

They strive to offer the widest casino portfolio in Portugal, prioritising all the fun of casino games with the top quality and safety that SolverdePT users have come to know them for.

Marcus Cordes, Hacksaw Gaming CEO is certain that Hacksaw enthusiasts in Portugal will be ecstatic with this new launch – “Being able to bring yet another growing market our games is what drives us forward! Saúde to a promising future partnership and to the teams who made this happen.”

With this latest launch marking our third new market entry in the past month alone, Hacksaw Gaming’s quest to introduce our collection to players worldwide is rapidly becoming reality. Are we setting the tone for even more groundbreaking ventures in the months ahead? Stay tuned, as we’re on a mission to grow our Hacksaw Community far and wide.

 

The post New Market Alert! Hacksaw Gaming Touch Down in Portugal with Solverde.pt appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

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Week 16/2024 slot games releases

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Here are this weeks latest slots releases compiled by European Gaming

Habanero, is introducing the Reel Rewards feature in its new 6×3 reel slot Golden Taj Mahal. Paying homage to Indian culture, the game sees tigers, candles, precious gemstones, the prince and princess as well as the magic lamp Wild fill the grid as the slot’s symbols. At the top of the board, there are six empty spots which can be filled by the Reel Rewards mechanic on any spin, awarding a prize ranging from 2x, 3x or 5x multipliers to a Wild, which transforms all symbols below it.

 

After releasing the frenzy of a slot game that was Brick Snake 2000, the award-winning slot provider is now set to release Tombstone No Mercy an upgraded refresh of its 2019 hit slot, Tombstone. The 2024 refresh stays true to the original game and introduces Nolimit Bonus Buys and Nolimit Booster into the mix. With the introduction of Nolimit Bonus Buys, players can buy right into the bonus rounds; Justice Spins, Gunslinger

 

 

Games Global exclusive studio PearFiction Studios has unveiled its latest release, Cerberus Gold, incorporating three engaging LockNWin bonuses that can be combined for great win potential. This mythological title boasts an exciting triple collection mechanic that sees each collection pot protected by a head of the fearsome guardian of the underworld, Cerberus, who precariously sits above the reel set.

 

4ThePlayer in collaboration with Yggdrasil is unveiling its new release, 4K Ultra Gold MoneyWays, through the YGG Masters platform. This game evolves 4ThePlayer’s popular MoneyWays mechanic as seen in the top-performing 4 Fantastic series where cash on the reels is won by forming ways wins without the need for additional symbols or features. In 4K Ultra Gold, every cash symbol is boosted when it lands on the reels, creating additional excitement and anticipation.

 

Push Gaming has released the second in its series of DJ games, DJ Cat, which brings a range of new features to amp up engagement. Following the success of DJ Fox, this new follow-up retains the easy-to-understand, win-what-you-see gameplay, adding in larger win multipliers. Lining up CD symbols helps players to build big prizes while VIP icons grant access to spin the decks and feed the Multiplier Meter. Arrow symbols crank the volume and unlock more reels using the iconic Push-Up feature.

 

Inspired Entertainment is thrilled to announce its latest slot game, Spin 2 Riches™, now available the UK B3/LBO market. Offering players an unparalleled gaming experience filled with mystery symbols and Fortune Spins. Spin 2 Riches invites players to embark on a thrilling adventure where every spin brings the promise of untold riches.

 

PG Soft, a world-class digital mobile games company, is on target again with its latest fun-filled game release, Piñata Wins. Set against a vibrant fiesta backdrop, Piñata Wins is a five-reel and three-row title offering players a colourful gaming experience with plenty of features with an opportunity to make big returns from multipliers up to x100. The reels are brought to life with symbols that celebrate Mexican culture including tacos, maracas, skulls, sombreros and chillies.

 

Endorphina, has announced the release of its latest slot game, Moon Tiger, on April 17th. Featuring 5 reels, 3 rows, 25 fixed paylines, and cool bonuses, the slot will soon join Endorphina’s portfolio of over 150  games. Inspired by Chinese mythology, this slot embodies the legendary White Tiger, a creature born from a rare occurrence in the heavens.

 

Blueprint Gaming is inviting players to live like royalty and reign over Phrygia in its latest scatter-pay release, the Greek mythology-themed Midas King of Gold. Players attempt to turn every touch into gold in this 6×5 scatter pays title, with the King himself appearing in symbols on the game’s richly coloured board alongside royal pillars and ancient artifacts.

 

Playson, the fast-growing digital entertainment supplier, has combined the striking themes of its most successful games in its latest title Energy Joker: Hold and Win. With coins, electricity and a grinning joker, this fast-paced release has lightning running through its reels. The blue Collect feature strikes the cells and gathers all values, including the Mini, Minor and Major jackpots and Bonus symbols.

 

 

Spinomenal has released its new hit, Queen of the Amazon. Set amongst the lush rainforest, this 5×4 slot welcomes players on an adventure where treasure awaits intrepid explorers. A majestic Amazon headdress, tiger, gorilla, and snake, make up the Medium symbols on the reels. At the heart of the story stands the queen herself, representing the Wild symbol.

 

 

Embark on a thrilling journey across continents in 80 Day Escapade, the dramatic new slot from Boldplay that offers multiple features for endless excitement and rewards. With its 5×3 reels and 243 ways to win, players will enjoy a world of adventure and fortune but the real excitement begins with the set of exciting bonus features.

 

 

The post Week 16/2024 slot games releases appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

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