Tencent quietly closed-beta tests E Ciyuan, an AI game companion product built around digital human buddies and voice companionship
Tencent is quietly running a closed beta of E Ciyuan, an AI game companion product that offers digital human characters, voice chat and real-time screen recognition. Players can pick male or female companions with different personas for everyday conversation, or turn on a game companion mode. The product is free during the beta, and the interface already shows a framework for exchanging star coins for energy and for spending energy by conversation turn, voice or length of companionship; the launch date, the list of supported titles and the final pricing plan have not been made public.
Why it matters: The article places E Ciyuan alongside in-game companion examples such as Lingbao and AI Pom-Pom, showing the difficulties standalone AI companions face in adaptation and monetization.