AI emerges as game changer for game developers, players

Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a strong driving force for China's gaming industry, lowering creation barriers, speeding up production, and empowering more people to turn game ideas into reality.

At China's largest annual gaming expo, ChinaJoy, which lowered the curtain on Monday, cutting-edge AI technologies, from AI-driven game development workflows to lifelike humanoid robots, amazed crowds of game lovers.

"The character is incredibly lively. It feels just like a real person talking," said a game lover, marveling at how natural the interaction felt.

Many industrial insiders also pointed out that AI has entered the game development industry. By describing an idea in ordinary language, creators can use the system to generate code, lower the entry barrier for game developers.

"This year marks my 10th year in game development, but I only started using AI last year," said Xiao Hana, a project team member of MEOWNTAIN.

She also stated that the first batch of games built from the AI platforms have already debuted on the Chinese market.

"This time we introduced AI agents so that players can freely talk to them. But behind this, we've trained a data volume of about 100,000 words per character," she explained.

The role-playing game, for example, having just released on Thursday, was built with the AI agents developed by the Chinese tech giant Tencent. The rapid advancement of generative AI has made players' interactions with game characters feel more natural and fluid.

"Ideas can be validated at a very early stage, and the cost of trial and error is greatly reduced. But lowering the barrier does not mean the barrier disappears – it merely shifts from 'can it be made' to 'is the idea good enough.' Creativity and judgment will only become more scarce in the future. So, AI reallocates developers' energy to where it truly matters," said Zhang Jian, General Manager of Ecosystem Development Department at Tencent Games.

AI is helping developers create and update games faster, while bringing down production costs. At the same time, Chinese titles are reaching far beyond the domestic market: self-developed games generated more than 12 billion U.S. dollars overseas in the first half of this year, up more than 30 percent year on year.

Games are also becoming a testing ground for general-purpose AI tools. Their complexity allows developers to see whether an agent that performs well in game development can handle other demanding tasks.

"We consider games to be an industrial-grade application with high integration and complexity among internet applications. If it can perform well in such a complex industrial environment, I believe it can also perform better in other daily work and general tasks," said Deng Zhidong, Product Operation Specialist of WorkBuddy, a full-scenario AI workbench from Tencent.

Getting more game developers onto the platform is also beneficial for the AI developer, to expand its applications. So, the company is for the first time hosting a game development competition for college students this year.

"Many of our student teams don't actually come from traditional backgrounds – like computer science or art – yet they are making games. Many of them, for instance – and this impressed me – include civil engineering majors and landscape design majors. They bring their own professional perspectives," said Deng.

From more responsive characters to tools that help newcomers build their first game, AI is becoming a power-up for both player experience and the development process. It is changing who can create a game, and how quickly an idea can become something people can play.

AI emerges as game changer for game developers, players

The Republic of Korea (ROK)'s consumer price inflation eased in July, breaking a multi-month accelerating trend amid stabilizing energy prices and lower farm goods prices, statistical ministry data showed Tuesday.

The consumer price index (CPI) rose 2.8 percent in July from a year earlier, falling below 3.0 percent in three months, according to the Ministry of Data and Statistics.

It marked a noticeable deceleration from 3.2 percent in June, after accelerating from 2.0 percent in February to 2.2 percent in March, 2.6 percent in April and 3.1 percent in May.

Headline inflation, however, stayed above the central bank's mid-term inflation target of 2 percent for 11 straight months since September 2025.

The Bank of Korea raised its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 2.75 percent in July, turning toward monetary tightening in about three and a half years since January 2023.

Oil products price gained 15.5 percent last month, after spiking 24.7 percent in the previous month. The price lifted overall inflation by 0.60 percentage points.

Price for gasoline and diesel jumped 12.6 percent and 21.5 percent each, while computer price shot up 25.1 percent amid soaring semiconductor price. Price for industrial products, including oil products and processed food, advanced 3.7 percent in July compared to the same month last year, slower than an expansion of 4.4 percent in the previous month.

Processed food price added 1.0 percent in July from a year earlier, faster than a growth of 0.9 percent in the previous month.

Price for agricultural, livestock and fishery products climbed 0.9 percent in July from a year earlier, after picking up 3.2 percent in June.

Agricultural products price slipped 2.2 percent last month, turning downward from an increase of 1.1 percent in the prior month. Those for livestock and fishery products swelled 4.4 percent and 3.9 percent each.

Rice price mounted 7.9 percent, but those for napa cabbage, watermelon, spinach, cucumber and zucchini retreated in double figures. Those for beef, imported beef, pork, egg and mackerel increased in single digits.

Price for electricity, natural gas and tap water was up 0.4 percent in July on a yearly basis.

City gas charge and waterworks fee added in single digits, but heating cost dipped 0.2 percent.

Services price surged 2.6 percent last month, hiking up the headline inflation by 1.46 percentage points.

Public service price rose 1.4 percent, while private service price, including eating-out costs, expanded 3.5 percent.

The eating-out expense gained 2.6 percent, and the private service price excluding the dining-out cost jumped 4.1 percent.

Affected by a spike in fuel surcharges from rising oil prices, international airfares soared 21.7 percent last month.

Housing rent, including Jeonse and monthly rent, was up 1.1 percent in July from a year earlier.

Jeonse is the country's unique contract between two households where a landlord grants two-year residential rights to a tenant, who in turn lends a certain amount of money, or a deposit, to the landlord.

The livelihood items index, which gauges prices for daily necessities, climbed 2.5 percent, while the fresh food index, which measures prices for fish, shellfish, fruit and vegetables, declined 2.3 percent.

Demand-side inflationary pressure lingered. Core consumer price index, which excludes volatile agricultural and oil products, appreciated 2.5 percent last month.

The OECD-method core price, excluding volatile food and energy costs, went up 2.6 percent in the cited month.

ROK's consumer price inflation eases to 2.8 pct in July