Artificial intelligence (AI) has been an integral part of gaming since the time of inception from 1950s. With time, technology in sports is growing rapidly and evolving the traditional ways. In football, for instance, new devices are used for different reasons such as to help referees in decision-making and to quantify the athletes’ performance during a game, thus helping the coach to calibrate the training program and the game strategy. In addition to that, in today’s day and age, audience engagement has become a crucial part of the ongoing sports events with the help of the technology and rise of fantasy sports.
In conversation with AnimationXpress Roanuz founder and CEO Anto Kaspar shared that “The technology has always been the very essence of gaming. We may be under the impression that the gaming has evolved within a short span of time but it was the breakthroughs in the computing technologies of over the last five decades. It was even very much primitive for the last two decades and now, the gaming has gone far ahead than we thought off. But, it would be a big mistake if we think that we have now reached the pinnacle of technological evolution in gaming.”
With time the technology has played a significant role in today’s gaming and Kaspar has shared a few influential elements which are listed down below:
Artificial intelligence: This has been the game-changer in the industry and brought liveliness in the game. AI has been widely used in the game movements and bringing the virtual world to life. It primarily engages the game players and provides incredible gaming experience to the users. This also allows the users to evaluate the players’ credits before purchasing them in the team.
Online play: An online playing game makes it more convenient for the users based their preference for the games. Irrespective of the geographical boundaries, the users can engage and play the games. One of the modern-day games has swept the gaming market recently, which is a fantasy league. Fantasy league has been considered as one of the modern-day games which engage the majority of the fans than other games.
Advanced Touch technologies: It has been unimaginable to play a game by swiping and touching the screen few years before but it makes it possible by the recent touch technology and it has been the of the one of the game-changer in the IT industry. Game developer around the world is trying their best to take advantage of touch screen technology while creating the games
Though AI is still niche technology to get completely absorbed in the Indian ecosystem according to Kaspar however the rush of fantasy sports in the industry has pushed the brands to incorporate AI technology in the Indian Fantasy sports ecosystem. He said “The AI is still the early stages integration and lots of experiments are undergoing in order to give a greater user experience. After five years, the industry can experience a more realistic view of gaming experience and will able to connect the game character easily.” Here is the excerpt which reveals deeper insights of the AI technology in the Indian fantasy sports ecosystem:
Where will fantasy sports head in 2020?
Though the fantasy leagues kick-started in early 1952 in USA and 2001 in India respectively, it has hit like a storm among the users for the last few years by the emergence of smartphones and the advantages technologies. India is set to witness a massive growth in fantasy sports and the gaming industry, growing from Rs. 43.8 million to reach Rs.118.8 billion by FY 23 at CAGR 22.1 per cent according to a report by Indian Federation of Sports Gaming (IFSG). And the number of users is estimated to cross over 100 million by 2020. According to the Orbis research, the global sports fantasy gaming market is forecasted to grow from $13 billion to $33 billion by 2025. Currently, Indian fantasy league is predominately dominated by cricket but the other sports are also expected picked up sooner than the later.
How the API for fantasy sports work?
The Fantasy Sports APIs provide URIs used to access fantasy sports data. The APIs are based on a RESTful model. Therefore, resources like game, league, team, player, etc. and collections like games, leagues, teams, players from the building blocks for these APIs. It is a tedious process for the game developers to store the data and to enter them. It requires a data team to manage the data and to update them on a daily basis. For example: While the match is live, there are a lot of chances that a player may go out and the new player may come in. That information can be updated only if the team is well maintained and scheduled. Hence, the API for fantasy sports reduces the manual effort and saves a lot of time, cost, resources to build a system. It is mainly used for the start-ups. It has given a lot of income opportunities to start-ups companies by helping them in their research, analysis.
What usually the requirements for the AI in the market? How it is transforming gaming business?
AI has flung its presence on almost every industry and no industry is left untouched by AI, but only for the better..AI is tremendously contributing to every industry in the market in many ways and transformed the way a particular industry functions and operates, particularly in analysis and decision making. Already AI has been deployed into various sectors, such as finance, national security, health care, criminal justice, transportation and smart cities. These industries are already reaping the impact of AI in significant ways. The gaming industry heavily depends on technology and the impact of the AI on it will be quite substantial.
How gaming becomes more realistic and personalised with AI.
AI has brought a realistic gaming experience for the users and the game characters become more realistic and natural than ever before. AI has the potential to improve the way game characters express and can create something more natural and realistic. Since the games are more realistic, the users are connecting to the character while playing which makes AI technology as compelling in the game industry.
Through AI, the user is able to personalise the game which allows the user to choose their preferred players using the available credits in their basket which make the game more personalised
Apart from fantasy sports how AI technology is transforming mainstream gaming?
The gaming in this decade is the combination of laws and AI algorithms. The games are endlessly procedural, generating environments and situations on the fly, and allow players to perform any action in a virtual world that they could in the real one. Going even further, it responds to the emotional and psychological state of its players, adapting and responding to human behaviour and evolving over time. Every game with AI technology has strict laws and rules. The game which is built using AI tech is 50 per cent psychological and 50 per cent AI. It is completely built on how humans react to each situation and move. Every game has an AI technology from PAC Man to Mario to Dungeon Crawler Dead Cells. In this year, the home has been transformed into an AI-controlled system in most of the countries like the US, Japan, and much more. In the next 10 years, the technologist believes that everything is AI from transport to war in almost all the countries.
Is AI a viable career option for students?
Yes, it is viable for students. The demand for the AI professional has been enhanced over the last few years since AI technology has been deployed in every industry.AI professional are getting 60 to 80 per cent hike while switching jobs, compared with an average of 20 to 30 per cent in other skill areas. AI professionals can easily adapt to any new kind of technologies as well in the near future. As of now, AI seems to be a better career option for the students.
What is the investment rate for AI technology in India?
According to the report, AI has the potential to add $957 billion or 15 per cent of India’s current gross value in 2035. The driving forces behind the growth are technology, data and talents which make industry compelling and expect to have a substantial growth in the future.
So far India Artificial intelligence startups have attracted investors from around the globe. In 2018, the startup raised an all-time high capital, registering a 368 per cent growth from 2017. In 2018, startups with operations in India and globally raised approximately $529.52 million which big sign of improvement for the AI companies compared to other companies.
AI has been a crucial part of gaming for a while now and we hope it will evolve more in time now.