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Based on newly revealed information from the studio behind the title, Arc Raiders appears to employ AI tools for creating certain spoken content. This news is strikingly similar to the situation that emerged around the developer's previous success, The Finals.

Release Details

Debuted on October 30th for PS5, PC, and Microsoft's console, Arc Raiders is described as a more accessible entry point to the extraction shooter genre. In contrast with more hardcore titles like Escape from Tarkov, it aims to offer a more approachable gameplay. The game has generally earned strong ratings, presently achieving a excellent rating on Steam based on numerous player reviews.

AI Disclosure

Within the product's Steam page, a notice regarding computer-assisted production raises similarities: "During development, we may employ procedural and AI-based technologies to facilitate asset production. Regardless of method, the resulting game showcases the creativity and vision of our development team."

Earlier Debate

The Finals, a successful competitive FPS famous for its responsive controls and dynamic battlefields, encountered backlash for its use of AI even before its full release. In its October 2023 open beta, the game's audio designer revealed in a podcast interview that the company had leveraged AI tools for developing dialogue lines. This revelation generated instant backlash from professional performers and game developers, who argued that computer-created dialogue were of notably lower quality compared to human performances and that such practices could eliminate voice-acting jobs.

Developer Response

In response, the development team clarified that they had contracted experienced performers to create initial voice lines for The Finals, but enhanced these with text-to-speech tools to generate additional content modeled after those original recordings. The developer's reasoning focused on the development speed obtained via this approach.

Current Situation

Regarding Arc Raiders, the game's design director recently stated that the game "in no way uses generative AI whatsoever," though he declined to elaborate on the specific interpretation of the platform statement. He did confirm, however, that the equivalent speech tools implemented in The Finals was also utilized in Arc Raiders.

Our approach involves mix of recorded voice audio and material produced using TTS tools in our releases, depending on the situation," commented a company spokesperson. In certain cases, filming actual interactions where talent interacts — enabling character chemistry and tension to define the final product — is something that provides substance to our game worlds that AI cannot replicate. For different situations, particularly if it relates to real-time combat communications, text-to-speech enables us to have tailored VO where we could not such as due to production timelines."

Community Response

First reactions to the use of automated systems in Arc Raiders has been relatively mixed, especially during the initial period. Some players have expressed strong opposition.

• Synthetic speech represents a flaw in an mostly outstanding title," commented one user in a community thread.
• I dislike that they did it for The Finals and am disappointed to hear they repeated it for this game," commented another.
• The effect was quickly detectable in the speech content for one protagonist," observed a another gamer.

That said, different gamers have taken a more tolerant stance.

• I don't care, they compensated performers and implemented it effectively," stated one forum user.
• This represents the most responsible as it is possible nowadays, unfortunately," added another.

The persistent controversy regarding AI implementation in video game production appears set to endure as studios juggle production speed with artistic integrity and ethical considerations.