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Wizards of the Coast Leverages Google Cloud’s Infrastructure and Generative AI Tools to Improve Developer Productivity and Test New Player and Accessibility Aids
Leading games developer and publisher improves engineer and developer productivity for improved internal operations and player accessibility

Sunnyvale, Calif., & Renton, Wash. [May 15, 2024] – Google Cloud today announced that Wizards of the Coast, game developer and publisher of Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering, is now leveraging Google Cloud’s infrastructure and generative AI (gen AI) solutions to improve player experiences and engagement. In collaboration with Google Cloud partner Datatonic, a leading cloud data and AI consultancy, Wizards of the Coast is implementing gen AI proof-of-concept projects that will enable developers to improve efficiency and create new ways for players to learn.

“Gen AI will help empower the creation of new experiences that simply wouldn’t be possible otherwise, opening interesting opportunities to breathe new innovation into games,” said Scott Neumann, Vice President, Digital Gaming Head of Technology, Wizards of the Coast. “For us to deliver games that react dynamically to player decisions, provide increased player enjoyment, and meet the player where they are, we need the latest in gaming technology. Google Cloud’s generative AI is the tool to get us there.”

Generative AI is already revolutionizing the games industry by crafting personalized experiences, automating repetitive tasks, and improving player accessibility.. Wizards of the Coast is expanding the ways both new and existing players can enjoy their classic titles, while keeping human ingenuity at the center of their work. In collaborating with Google Cloud and Datatonic, Wizards of the Coast is executing on three initial proof-of-concept projects that aim to:

  • Build a model gen AI learning tool for new Magic players: Wizards of the Coast is experimenting with a learning tool powered by Google’s gen AI technology to help beginners learn how to play Magic: The Gathering and share the game with their friends, family and community. To answer player questions quickly and accurately, Wizards connected BigQuery Vector Search to perform retrieval augmented generation. Running semantic search over the gameplay rules documentation retrieves the information relevant to the player’s question, and then feeds that to the large language model (LLM) to generate a response. The tool can answer questions about game concepts, rules, specific cards, and other gameplay-related aspects to demystify the game to new players.
  • Democratize data access to improve business intelligence: Wizards of the Coast is leveraging Google Cloud's expertise in operationalizing AI models and creating secure cloud environments to build a foundation for the future. This includes building a secure, gen AI application to allow business leaders to extract valuable insights from even the most complex datasets. The use of AI in this application can dramatically lower the need to have technical expertise in order to access data. This will allow leaders of various disciplines and functions to derive insights quickly and easily.
  • Boost development productivity for engineering teams: By building a customized code generation application, Wizards of the Coast is reducing repetitive programming tasks and accelerating routine reviews of changes to the codebases of projects. This will help engineering teams to keep pace with content teams and iterate more quickly during development.

“To realize the full potential of generative AI and build truly living games, game companies need to have scalable infrastructure and an open data ecosystem that can deliver high quality, clean data to optimize analysis and insights,” said Jack Buser, Director for Games, Strategic Industries, Google Cloud. “With Google’s gen AI, Wizards of the Coast is improving player experiences, creating exciting new gameplay possibilities and attracting new audiences.”

Since 2020, Wizards of the Coast has been building applications on Google Cloud. SpellTable, built on Google Cloud, was the first app designed and built solely for playing tabletop Magic: The Gathering remotely. In addition, Wizards of the Coast uses BigQuery to glean better insights into player analytics, and for a variety of sales and marketing processes. As its work expanded to gen AI projects, Google Cloud and Datatonic partnered with Wizards of the Coast to unlock new value from its data, and develop impactful AI use cases.

“Datatonic has developed a range of generative AI solutions for the gaming industry with a focus on providing next-generation player experiences,” said Valentin Cojocaru, Head of Data Science at Datatonic. “Through our work with Wizards of the Coast, we aim to optimize efficiency for development teams and remove repetitive manual tasks, so developers can focus on innovation.”

About Google Cloud
Google Cloud is the new way to the cloud, providing AI, infrastructure, developer, data, security, and collaboration tools built for today and tomorrow. Google Cloud offers a powerful, fully integrated and optimized AI stack with its own planet-scale infrastructure, custom-built chips, generative AI models and development platform, as well as AI-powered applications, to help organizations transform. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted technology partner.

About Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast, a division of Hasbro (NASDAQ: HAS), develops legendary games that inspire creativity, spark passions, forge friendships, and foster communities around a lifetime love of games. Wizards delivers compelling experiences for gamers across tabletop and digital gaming through its best-known franchises MAGIC: THE GATHERING and DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, along with Hasbro's unparalleled portfolio of over 1,800 iconic brands.

With headquarters in Renton, Washington and studios in Austin, Montreal, Raleigh, and Renton, Wizards is dedicated to fostering world class talent to create unforgettable play experiences on all platforms. To learn more about Wizards, please visit  https://company.wizards.com or Wizards of the Coast on LinkedIn.

About Datatonic:
Datatonic is the leading cloud data + AI consultancy for the world’s most ambitious businesses, challenging traditions to deliver tangible innovation at the leading edge of Google Cloud. Datatonic works with industry-leading organizations to unlock the value of data and solve their most complex business challenges fast, helping clients do the same by upskilling tech teams to stay ahead of what’s next. For more information, visit https://datatonic.com/.