The company behind the long-running space sim Eve Online has entered into a partnership with Google in which the search giant will take a minority stake. In exchange, Google’s DeepMind will train its AI technology on the game, according to a report by Bloomberg.
CCP Games, the dev who made and maintains Eve Online, has also been rebranded as Fenris Creations. This happened just after the company purchased the rights to the game back from Korean developer Pearl Abyss.
Google’s investment is “in the millions” of dollars, according to Fenris Creations Chief Executive Officer Hilmar Veigar Pétursson. DeepMind is going to first study player behavior on isolated servers, as Eve Online “requires skills that AI has not yet fully mastered.” This is according to DeepMind’s Adrian Bolton, who mentioned hurdles like “long-term planning and continual learning.”
