Tencent is secretly beta testing E-Circle, an AI digital human game companion integrating real-time video, voice, and text. Targeting pain points in the human-powered gaming companion market like high labor costs, E-Circle offers emotional support with a pay-per-use model based on Star Coins. Features include desktop pets and gameplay interaction. This move signals Tencent's push to integrate multimodal AI into core gaming scenarios, restructuring the companionship ecosystem with low-cost digital solutions.