Ubisoft's bot chat Sam exceeds 1.6 million users and answers 10 million questions in one year

A year ago, French video game publisher Ubisoft launched Sam, a discussion robot, which allows players to stay connected to games connected to their Ubisoft Club accounts. Responding to voice commands or text messages, Sam answered questions about games, ranging from the definition of madness in Far Cry 3 to the ability to pet cats in Assassin's Creed: Origins.

And after a year, Sam has more than 1.6 million users and has answered more than 10 million questions. He now answers more than 25,000 questions a day, but about 35% of conversations with Sam are about unpretentious conversations. That's what I heard from Barcelona-based Barcelona-based Creative Director Charles Huteau.

"We are really happy with this because they are chatting with Sam as they are chatting with a friend," said Huteau. "We are outside the gadget area, where after a few months, people stop using new things. We have new users arriving each day. "

In an interview, Huteau told me that his team continues to update Sam with a variety of features. And with Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, Sam will show you the percentage of dialogue choices you made and how they compare to others. You can find out whether or not you are one of the top 1% of Tom Clancy The Division 2 players. On Far Cry 5, Sam will summarize the last mission you started. In some games like Rainbow Six, Sam can analyze your game from the previous session and make recommendations to improve it.

The daily connection was one of the features announced last January and was launched with Tom Clancy, Rainbow Six Siege. The Daily Connection is a personalized notification for players that is transferred to your phone when you launch the game. Once the game is started, Sam analyzes your profile, your behavior in the game and your stats. Then, Sam will send you links to video tips from the community that are particularly suitable for you.

"We want to compare you to your friends," said Huteau. "It's really cool."

The daily login feature has been extended to more Ubisoft titles. At the end of the year, Sam will recommend to his friends to play with this match of your level in The Division 2.

And a Team Up feature will allow you to invite up to four friends to an appointment. Before a game session, Sam will check that everyone you play with has the game on the same platform. In addition, Sam will create a reminder on your phone's calendar so that you never miss a game session.

Sam will also be able to log in to your account and keep you informed of your access. You can also use Sam to check the online status of a game.

Huteau said Sam can look at your room and suggest a YouTube video that you can watch so you can learn something new. Based on what Sam has learned from conversations, the team adds dozens of new questions and answers that Sam can answer during conversations. And depending on how users react to videos, Ubisoft can tell if the suggested videos are really useful or not.

Last summer, 3,000 players asked Sam to sing Despacito. When players do this, it is clear that Sam is seen more as a companion than a mere source of information.

"We wanted people to talk to Sam as they were talking to a friend," Huteau said.

Ubisoft also used Sam for market research. He asked if the players wanted new content for Far Cry 5, The Crew 2 or For Honor, and the answer came back with 58% in favor of Far Cry 5. The company is therefore focused on the content of Far Cry 5.

"We include the user community in our development choices," said Huteau.

Is Sam really an example of AI or the illusion of AI? A part of Sam is scripted by the live team, which creates the answers Sam gives in response to users' questions. But another part is rendered by artificial intelligence, in which she sorts the numbers and suggests what you need to do in games.

"It's something we're very proud of," said Huteau. "We want to be useful with interesting statistics and recommendations."