‘There was some really fair criticism’: Arc Raiders’ devs understand why players were so upset about its AI use but say that it was ‘too impractical to record’ every voice line

The start of Arc Raiders was a very mixed bag. On one hand it managed to attract an unbelievable amount of players as Embark Studios struck gold with its gentler take on extraction shooters. But all of this hype was somewhat overshadowed by the controversy surrounding its use of AI to mimic voice actors and supplement the dialogue.

While the actors involved did sign contracts allowing Embark to do this, there was still a great deal of backlash from players who were frustrated to see AI injected into the game. Many players pointed out, rightfully so, just how lifeless, lacklustre, and odd some of the AI voicelines sounded, a fact that was made all the more apparent by how fantastic Marathon’s NPCs were.

Embark’s devs have pointed out, however, that it only used AI in order to get updates out the door faster; that this was due to efficiency rather than an affinity for the technology. “[The actors] have been here all along,” Embark’s audio director Bence Pajor says. “But we haven’t always used them to record the actual thing you’re going [to hear] because that’s only been solidified super late. We made a lot of training data from their voices so we could prototype as well with their voice.