Nexon's Intelligence Labs aims to enhance user experience

South Korean game developer and publisher Nexon is steering the future of the gaming industry with Intelligence Labs, an in-house AI research and development team designated to exploring the optimal gaming experience for users.

Launched in 2017, Intelligence Labs has used machine learning and deep learning to come up with more engaging and immersive games. A team of around 700 engineers is now zeroing in on generative artificial intelligence research to create original, personalized content for players.

In April 2023, the Nexon-based team publicly launched its game development solution package, “Gamescale,” in a bid to foster the overall growth of the gaming industry.

Clients can purchase specialized solution packages designed to facilitate security, marketing, business, community, data analysis, quality assurance and the operation services of a game.

In particular, Gamescale offers a game matchmaking algorithm based on user preferences and playstyles, as an alternative to traditional skill-based matchmaking. It can also detect any game hacking program or users, sparing clients the trouble of taking care of their own security.

According to Nexon, Gamescale boosted the overall user retention rate -- the percentage of users returning to play the game on the day it was downloaded -- to over 164 percent, proving user satisfaction.

Intelligence Labs aims to make a game in which players fully immerse themselves. While the existing games stick to only one story or design, the team is revving up personalized user experience with generative AI.

It recently rolled out a “Nexon Voice Creator,” a Text-to-Speech system that creates voices in a variety of accents and pitches for nonplayer characters without separate voice recordings.

Nexon is also testing the “AI NPC” function, which enables game characters to directly communicate with users, beyond a single script. By creating realistic and intelligent NPCs catered to different playstyles, players can fully immerse into the game’s adventure.

However, the AI NPC function opens up the possibility of creating false, biased, discriminatory and abusive remarks, the firm said. In response to mounting ethical concerns about AI, Intelligence Labs is putting effort into building ethical guidelines for trustworthy AI in gaming.

The game developer is also operating the Nexon Lab to test Intelligence Labs’ contents with users before adding new functions to its games.

“We will provide users with an exclusive gaming experience they have never encountered before,” said Bae Jun-young, the division manager at Intelligence Labs.