EA has a team exploring future tech like VR, AR, and "virtual humans"

EA has an internal team dedicated to exploring VR, AR, and other "longer-term" projects.

EA has a team exploring future tech, VR, AR, and "virtual humans"

Frostbite Labs is the name of a new internal team at EA that specialises in exploring virtual reality, alternate reality, and creating believable "virtual humans for virtual reality." The team has two office, one in Stockholm, Sweden, and another in Vancouver, Canada.

In particular, the "virtual human" part of the team's research will focus on creating "virtual humans" to occupy virtual reality spaces.

"How you're seen as a virtual human in that world is something we need to solve for," EA studios boss Patrick Soderlund said during the publisher's Investor Day briefing.

Other projects include work in deep learning, which, if successful, would allow the Frostbite engine to create basic world concepts based on just a few parameters like time of day etc, giving developers more time to focus on gameplay.

"Now, we will never get to the point where the level is just taken from there, put into a game, and shipped. That won't happen," Soderlund added.

"But, if we can get a base set of levels created that the artists and levels can then go in and alter, imagine just much time we've won and how much more time we can spend on iterating on the game instead of actually making the game. In a sense, it should drive economy of scale and should also drive a better product."

EA had previously said it's looking into VR, and has a few incubation efforts in this space, but is not yet ready to invest in full products based on the fledgeling tech.

Thanks, Gamespot.