After an 11-year drought, EA Sports has launched a new college football video game with the likeness of 11,000 players real players. To achieve an accurate look for all those players, "EA Sports College Football 25" relied on artificial intelligence to create digital avatars, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal. The AI marks a major upgrade for the franchise and a milestone in the integration of AI into video games as a whole.
EA Sports wanted to create virtual athletes in-house for its game. The company developed AI tools capable of transforming photos into detailed 3D avatars. But, while full-body scans are standard for producing virtual versions of NFL players in the Madden NFL series, there are six times the number of athletes in the NCAA Division I football. So, EA wanted a more efficient and less expensive option. The company, with approval from the players, instead used headshots from the colleges and an AI model to produce virtual players that could be slotted into the game.
