In a surprising development, human talent has stepped in to replace artificial intelligence in select roles. Patrick Söderlund, chief executive of Embark Studios, revealed to GamesIndustry.biz that the developer re-recorded certain AI-created audio segments in Arc Raiders using live performers, following the title's strong release last October.
Söderlund highlighted the superior standard during his discussion with GamesIndustry.biz, observing, 'There is a quality difference. A real professional actor is better than AI; that's just how it is.'
The extraction shooter saw its Steam audience climb to almost 500,000 concurrent players at its height, signaling impressive popularity, though the incorporation of text-to-speech technology sparked backlash. Generative AI was absent from the game's artwork, and Embark Studios secured payments from its performers to adapt their vocal styles for text-to-speech applications, Söderlund explained. He noted that this method targeted dialogue not vital to the overall player engagement, yet a significant number of users voiced their disapproval of the choice.
Addressing the negative feedback, Embark Studios seems to be pivoting toward increased use of professional voice work. The leader mentioned compensating actors for studio sessions and intending to 'continue to bring many of them back as we carry on updating the game.' Still, Söderlund emphasized to GamesIndustry.biz that merely 'some' AI lines were updated with human recordings, implying the team has no plans to abandon text-to-speech features entirely in the near term.