According to Dujia, Tencent is secretly testing a AI digital human game companion product called "E-Circle". By integrating real-time video recognition, voice two-way communication, and text interaction capabilities, it is exploring a new form of virtual human-driven player gaming socialization and emotional companionship. The product includes multiple distinct male and female virtual characters (such as Xiaxia, who calls herself a "Bronze Master", and Guyu), which not only support desktop pets, wallpaper generation, and casual conversation, but also focus on real-time companion gameplay that adapts to mainstream online games.

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In response to pain points in the traditional human gaming companion market such as high labor costs, difficulties in personnel management, and service compliance risks, "E-Circle" focuses on providing emotional support during single-player ranked matches and fragmented time periods, positioning itself as "heavy on companionship, light on guidance". In terms of commercialization, the product offers all features free of charge during the beta test, while pre-setting a pay-per-use framework centered around "Star Coins exchange for energy", with a minimum single exchange of 10 Star Coins, planned to deduct consumption based on the number of conversation rounds, call and companionship duration, and image generation volume, thus building a flexible value-added revenue cycle.

Although the product is still in a confidential beta test phase, future verification will be needed for the stability of complex game screen recognition and avoiding repetitive dialogue in long-term interactions. However, this move marks that Tencent is accelerating the integration of multimodal AI into core game interaction scenarios, restructuring the vertical companionship ecosystem with low-cost, standardized digital human solutions.