Presented by WEMADE
Unveiled at CES 2025 to a massive response, Asterion is the world’s first AI-driven boss, redefining the landscape of MMORPG gameplay. Asterion is a key highlight of the upcoming MMORPG, MIR5, which takes place in an interconnected parallel universe, thousands of years after its hugely successful predecessor, MIR4. WEMADE, the pioneering developer behind this breakthrough, is the first MMORPG game studio in the world to collaborate with NVIDIA on AI boss development, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in interactive gaming.
This new gameplay paradigm replaces predictable, script-based encounters with adaptive bosses that analyze player strategies, recall past battles and evolve tactics to ensure that no two fights ever feel the same. While AI in gaming has traditionally focused on graphics enhancements and natural NPC interactions, the MIR5 AI Boss trailer, showcased by NVIDIA at CES, introduced a whole new dynamic for MMORPGs.
“The reaction was huge — and diverse,” says Wonil Suh (“Won”), EVP of global corporate development at WEMADE. “Many players were excited about an adaptive boss, but it sparked discussion — if the boss keeps evolving through battles, can it ever truly be defeated? And since the AI boss is still in development, even WEMADE cannot fully predict how it will function in its final form. The buzz all stems from the growing interest in AI-driven gameplay. “
These innovations align seamlessly with WEMADE’s broader vision of “Infinity Play” — an initiative that leverages AI to create player-driven gaming ecosystems where every in-game action influences and shapes evolving game worlds. WEMADE’s long-term goal is to dissolve the boundaries between games and reality, offering an entirely new dimension of interactive entertainment with tangible, real-world value.
The latest WEMADE-NVIDIA collaboration, Black Vultures: Prey of Greed, marks both another technological leap and WEMADE’s expansion into the first-person shooter (FPS) genre. At the game’s core is “Viper,” a revolutionary AI-driven combat device designed specifically for the new title and powered by NVIDIA ACE. With both games in co-development with NVIDIA ACE, WEMADE is leveraging NVIDIA’s world-class engineering support and cutting-edge AI solutions to elevate the gaming experience.
The AI under the hood
NVIDIA ACE enables real-time learning, allowing the boss characters to adapt and change their strategy even during battles with players — and because the AI boss doesn’t have a fixed attack pattern, players must constantly refine and upgrade their own strategies. The AI model is trained on a whole host of player stats, including boss and player positions, HP, MP, available skills, attack/defense stats, buffs and other battle-related data, and then continuously refined by reintegrating newly generated battle data into the learning process.
It’s a major undertaking, Won says.
“In an MMORPG, a vast amount of data is involved in battles, and even the smallest factors can influence the outcome,” he explains. “Combat scenarios are not limited to 1v1 battles but often involve n:n interactions, making it challenging to parameterize all variables effectively. At the same time, a boss that always wins would diminish players’ sense of achievement and enjoyment, making game balance a key challenge.”
Developers are now testing countermeasures, such as capping the boss’s win rate at a certain threshold, adjusting its learning speed or periodically resetting its data and continuously refining the experience to find that sweet spot where boss unpredictability is a challenge for players, rather than an obstacle.
Developing unpredictable non-playable characters (NPCs) is also a challenge for developers. While they can guide behavioral tendencies, they can’t control every action in detail during development and testing. It makes for a challenging dynamic and exciting development process, as the team explores the potential of NVIDIA ACE, to enhance AI-driven interactions and mechanics within their games.
The AI behind Black Vultures
WEMADE’s first FPS, Black Vultures: Prey of Greed, is set against a backdrop of prolonged modern warfare. The game delivers hyper-realistic visuals crafted with Unreal Engine 5, intricate psychological warfare dynamics between three rival factions, a team-based farming system and an innovative respawn system designed to maximize player immersion and engagement.
The game introduces Viper, an advanced AI combat assistant powered by NVIDIA Riva Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) technology. This next-generation system seamlessly integrates real-time battlefield analysis, harnessing data from tactical cameras, headsets and drones to provide players with an unprecedented level of situational awareness and tactical foresight.
Viper is more than an assistant — it delivers optimal combat intelligence, offering critical insights into enemy numbers, weapon types, ambush points and battlefield dynamics. It’s designed as a brand-new way to bridge the information gap that often arises from differences in player skill levels in FPS games. Instead of merely compensating for disparities in player skills, Viper actively enhances FPS gameplay by providing adaptive tactical support that elevates strategic depth and deepens player engagement.
“What makes Viper truly groundbreaking is its ability to learn and adapt to each player’s unique playstyle and evolving in-game conditions,” Won says. “Instead of just being a static AI, it actively interacts with players during combat, offering real-time insights that make battles more engaging and strategically immersive.”
Ultimately, AI solutions like Viper serve a dual purpose: not only do they provide real-time information and personalized tactical guidance to enhance immersion for players, they enable deeper insights into player behavior and real-time data collection for developers, allowing for more refined content adjustments.
Adding AI to the developer toolbox
Viper is more than just an AI that executes commands — it’s an autonomous system capable of analyzing complex scenarios to provide players with critical information. During reconnaissance missions, for instance, it can detect threats, assess risk factors and make independent decisions to escape danger if necessary. Achieving this level of autonomy and enabling Viper to adapt dynamically to evolving combat situations required integrating a sophisticated language model-based decision-making framework.
By leveraging ACE’s Riva technology and decision-making capabilities, Viper can interact with players more naturally and enhance overall immersion. There are fascinating challenges in developing this brand-new kind of in-game AI.
“From a development perspective, one of the key challenges is enabling seamless, natural interactions between AI and players,” Won adds. “This requires minimizing edge cases and outliers. Ensuring that Viper consistently responds intuitively, even in unpredictable scenarios, is crucial for maintaining immersion. NVIDIA ACE offers an optimal solution for achieving this, allowing Viper to deliver a more immersive and responsive experience.”
Viper is being developed with the goal of being more than just a tool — it will evolve alongside players, to offer a personalized experience. To achieve this, the AI will be continuously trained with diverse prompts and adaptive learning methods, allowing it to gradually evolve and refine its interactions over time.
The challenge here is ensuring that the AI enhances the player experience without disrupting game balance. To prevent Viper from feeling overpowered or omniscient, it is designed to function as a support system that assists player decision-making rather than making choices on their behalf.
Another major technical hurdle is optimizing the AI’s computing resource consumption. AI-driven systems often require significant computational power, which is often a barrier to AI innovation. To address this, WEMADE is improving server architecture and implementing efficient data processing techniques to maintain optimal performance without excessive resource demands.
“Ultimately, our AI breakthroughs ensure that Black Vultures is not just another FPS — it offers a unique blend of psychological warfare and strategic combat,” Won says. “With Viper, we aim to introduce a new dimension of tactical gameplay. Through our collaboration with NVIDIA, WEMADE is setting a new standard for next-generation FPS games.”
Transforming the MMORPG landscape with AI
WEMADE and NVIDIA are transforming gaming with AI-driven experiences in MIR5 and Black Vultures, replacing scripted encounters with adaptive, player-driven worlds. Through the Infinity Play initiative, WEMADE is pioneering dynamic ecosystems where AI enhances immersion, maintains game balance, and integrates blockchain-powered value creation, ensuring tangible, real-world value for players. As AI reshapes the industry, this collaboration sets a new standard for intelligent, evolving gameplay that redefines player engagement.
For more information, head to WEMADE’s official channels:
https://www.youtube.com/@WEMADEGlobal
https://www.wemade.com/main/En
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