Arc Raiders dev Embark Studios re-recorded lines after AI voice controversy

When Arc Raiders launched last fall, it received plenty of praise. It was also dragged somewhat for its use of gen-AI voices, much like in The Finals, the previous game from developer Embark Studios. In a new interview with GameIndustry.biz, studio head Patrick Söderlund disclosed that Arc Raiders has fewer AI voice lines now while also describing AI as a “production tool” in development.

“We re-recorded some of the lines post-launch and made them with real voices,” Söderlund said. Certain lines for the in-match ping system were generated via an AI text-to-speech model based on voice actors hired for the game. Embark’s rationale was that this system was more efficient than needing to bring back voice actors to the studio for each update to the live-service extraction shooter.

To Söderlund, the difference between the AI lines and recordings from real voice actors is night and day. “There is a quality difference. A real professional actor is better than AI; that’s just how it is.” He described how Embark views AI “first and foremost as a production tool” that allows them to test different lines before deciding what to record. “It’s also a way for us to work, not replace actors. We don’t necessarily believe in replacing humans with AI all the time.”

He also addressed the idea that using AI voices was a way around paying fair wages for voice actors. “We pay our actors for all time spent with us in the booth and continue to bring many of them back as we carry on updating the game.” For “select usage,” Embark also pays voice actors to license their voices for Embark’s text-to-speech program.

The whole interview is a fascinating look behind the curtain of how games are made. Speaking on how landscapes were created for Arc Raiders, Söderlund said, “Very little of it is AI. A lot of it is reconfiguring what I believe are old ways of working — old toolsets, old pipelines, old engines, and saying there must be a better way of doing this.”

Though Embark’s use of AI in development may be waning, at least for those voice lines, the CEO of its publisher believes AI use is widespread in game development. Nexon CEO Junghun Lee also drew controversy last year by saying in an interview, “I think it’s important to assume that every game company is now using AI.” Other developers called “bullshit.”

No matter what, though, fervor around AI and how it can be used in game development isn’t going anywhere. It was a major talking point at the Game Developers Conference this year, though nobody actually knows what to do with it.