mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

GameWorld: Towards Standardized and Verifiable Evaluation of Multimodal Game Agents

arXiv 2604.07429 ↗First posted 8 Apr 2026cs.CV cs.AI cs.HCcited by 22

On the map: Multimodal LLMs / vision-language models → Embodied and 3D vision-language models

also in 1 more
Abstract (arXiv)

Towards an embodied generalist for real-world interaction, Multimodal Large Language Model (MLLM) agents still suffer from challenging latency, sparse feedback, and irreversible mistakes. Video games offer an ideal testbed with rich visual observations and closed-loop interaction, demanding fine-grained perception, long-horizon planning, and precise control. However, systematically evaluating these capabilities is currently hindered by heterogeneous action interfaces and heuristic verification. To this end, we introduce GameWorld, a benchmark designed for standardized and verifiable evaluation of MLLMs as generalist game agents in browser environments. Two game agent interfaces are studied: (i) computer-use agents that directly emit keyboard and mouse controls, and (ii) generalist multimodal agents that act in a semantic action space via deterministic Semantic Action Parsing. GameWorld contains 34 diverse games and 170 tasks, each paired with state-verifiable metrics for outcome-based evaluation. The results across 18 model-interface pairs suggest that even the best performing agent is far from achieving human capabilities on video games. Extensive experiments of repeated full-benchmark reruns demonstrate the robustness of the benchmark, while further studies on real-time interaction, context-memory sensitivity, and action validity expose more challenges ahead for game agents. Together, by offering a standardized, verifiable, and reproducible evaluation framework, GameWorld lays a robust foundation for advancing research on multimodal game agents and beyond. The project page is at https://gameworld-bench.github.io.

Key facts. Cited by 22 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Embodied and 3D vision-language models, one of 16 directions in Multimodal LLMs / vision-language models. Builds on 20 of its 86 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 8 Apr 2026.

Builds on

20 of 86 references.

Closest ancestors · 4

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2025DeepPHY: Benchmarking Agentic VLMs on Physical Reasoning7 Aug
  2. 2025GLM-4.5V and GLM-4.1V-Thinking: Towards Versatile Multimodal Reasoning with Scalable Reinforcement Learning1 Jul
  3. 2025V-MAGE: A Game Evaluation Framework for Assessing Vision-Centric Capabilities in Multimodal Large Language Models8 Apr
  4. 2025JARVIS-VLA: Post-Training Large-Scale Vision Language Models to Play Visual Games with Keyboards and Mouse20 Mar

Other references · 16

  1. 2022ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Modelscited by 8,355
  2. 2023Toolformer: Language Models Can Teach Themselves to Use Toolscited by 4,072
  3. 2025Qwen3-VL Technical Reportcited by 2,534
  4. 2023Voyager: An Open-Ended Embodied Agent with Large Language Modelscited by 2,081
  5. 2023WebArena: A Realistic Web Environment for Building Autonomous Agentscited by 1,908
  6. 2016OpenAI Gymcited by 1,684
  7. 2023Gemini: A Family of Highly Capable Multimodal Modelscited by 810
  8. 2025Kimi K2: Open Agentic Intelligencecited by 523
  9. 2025Seed1.5-VL Technical Reportcited by 367
  10. 2023JARVIS-1: Open-World Multi-task Agents with Memory-Augmented Multimodal Language Modelscited by 170
  11. 2024Cradle: Empowering Foundation Agents Towards General Computer Controlcited by 114
  12. 2016DeepMind Labcited by 74
4 more
  1. 2024The Dawn of GUI Agent: A Preliminary Case Study with Claude 3.5 Computer Usecited by 62
  2. 2023See and Think: Embodied Agent in Virtual Environmentcited by 54
  3. 2023ASSISTGUI: Task-Oriented Desktop Graphical User Interface Automationcited by 45
  4. 2025Lumine: An Open Recipe for Building Generalist Agents in 3D Open Worldscited by 19

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 22.

22 papers.

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  1. 2026Show-Harness: Just a VLM Agent Can Play Robotscited by 17
  2. 2026GUI Agents for Continual Game Generationcited by 16
  3. 2026Agentic World Modeling: Foundations, Capabilities, Laws, and Beyondcited by 10
  4. 2026Towards Interactive Video World Modeling: Frontiers, Challenges, Benchmarks, and Future Trendscited by 6
  5. 2026MineExplorer: Evaluating Open-World Exploration of MLLM Agents in Minecraftcited by 3
  6. 2026Towards Generalist Game Players: An Investigation of Foundation Models in the Game Multiversecited by 2
  7. 2026SPIKE: An Adaptive Dual Controller Framework for Cost-Efficient Long-Horizon Game Agentscited by 2
  8. 2026CAST: Game Solvers as Turn-Level Teachers for LLM Agentscited by 2
  9. 2026Beyond Simply Environment Scaling: Designing Effective Environment Distributions for Multimodal Agent Learningcited by 2
  10. 2026AI for Games in the Foundation Model Eracited by 2
  11. 2026MirrorCraft: Paired Evaluation under Hidden Rule Changes in Minecraftcited by 1
  12. 2026Agentic Game Development as a Verifiable Trajectory Data Engine for Scaling World Modelscited by 1
10 more
  1. 2026UrbanGround: From Local Perception to Spatial Agency in a Real-Scale Citycited by 1
  2. 2026Beyond the Current Observation: Evaluating Multimodal Large Language Models in Controllable Non-Markov Gamescited by 0
  3. 2026From Generation to Simulation: How Far Are World Models from Being True Simulators?cited by 0
  4. 2026V-ICAL Bench: Evaluating Video In-Context Learning for Multimodal Agents in Interactive Environmentscited by 0
  5. 2026GameHorizon Suite: Multi-Horizon Data and Evaluation in Gameplaycited by 0
  6. 2026LongPuzzleBench: Evaluating GUI Agents on Long-Horizon Visual Puzzlescited by 0
  7. 2026Planarian: Managing Agent State with Statepointscited by 0
  8. 2026A2Z GameSpec-Bench: How Faithfully Can Coding Agents Generate Games from Game Design Specifications?cited by 0
  9. 2026VISTA: A Visual Harness for Reasoning in an Interactive Worldcited by 0
  10. 2026Mine Odyssey: Benchmarking Spatial Agentic Intelligence in the Wildcited by 0

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2025Game-TARS: Pretrained Foundation Models for Scalable Generalist Multimodal Game Agents
  2. 2025GVGAI-LLM: Evaluating Large Language Model Agents with Infinite Games
  3. 2024A Survey on Large Language Model-Based Game Agents
  4. 2025Orak: A Foundational Benchmark for Training and Evaluating LLM Agents on Diverse Video Games
  5. 2026NitroGen: An Open Foundation Model for Generalist Gaming Agents
  6. 2024From Multimodal LLMs to Generalist Embodied Agents: Methods and Lessons
  7. 2026PlaySuite: A Large-Scale Benchmark for Interactive Visual Intelligence
  8. 2025Cultivating Game Sense for Yourself: Making VLMs Gaming Experts