Arc Raiders and the AI Voice Acting Debate
Arc Raiders has become one of the standout hits of 2025. It is an extraction shooter from Embark Studios, the same team behind The Finals. While its success as a live service game is notable, the real industry impact has come from how it uses artificial intelligence, especially for character voices.
Embark Studios has been at the center of a heated conversation about AI in game development. The studio has used generative AI and text to speech tools to produce voiced lines for Arc Raiders, instead of relying entirely on traditional voice actors. This has sparked backlash, confusion, and mixed messaging from the studio itself.
On one hand, Embark’s leadership has claimed they do not use AI to replace people. On the other, they have openly acknowledged that AI tools allowed them to create voiced characters when they did not have the budget or capacity for full voice acting. For many players and industry observers, that is functionally the same as replacing work that would have gone to human actors.
Embark’s Changing Tone on AI
In a recent interview, Arc Raiders design director Virgil Watkins gave a more reserved view of AI than many expected, especially for a studio that has already shipped successful games using the technology.
When asked if Embark is now fully committed to AI after Arc Raiders found success, Watkins said things have not really swung one way or the other. Instead, the studio looks at AI tools through a practical lens. The main questions they ask themselves are:
- Does this tool let us do something we could not do before
- Is it a genuine benefit to the game, rather than just a gimmick
He explains that text to speech technology was an unlock during development. It let the team add voiced characters at a time when they did not have the resources to bring in voice actors. In other words, it was a stopgap solution that made the game feel more complete than it otherwise could have been with their small team.
However, Watkins also admits that the quality might not have fully hit the mark. That is a quiet but important statement. It suggests that even inside the studio there is recognition that AI generated voices still sound off. Many players share that view. Some fans bounced off Arc Raiders not only because extraction shooters are not for everyone, but also because the AI voices felt flat, lifeless, and more like background noise from low effort online content than dialogue from a premium game.
Watkins says Embark is not simply opening the floodgates to every AI or AI adjacent tool it can find. At the same time, they are not abandoning AI either. Instead, the studio is trying to find a middle ground. They want to build their own tools, experiment with emerging tech, and see how it can help a relatively small team produce content at the scale modern players expect.
He also stresses that they are not ignoring the concerns of players and creators. The backlash has made studios very aware that AI in games is a sensitive subject, especially when it looks like it might replace human creative work rather than support it.
What This Means for Gamers and the Industry
Arc Raiders is part of a larger pattern in 2025. Many studios large and small have been testing the limits of AI usage in development. That includes AI for art, writing, and especially voice work. Players are increasingly calling out what they see as lazy or exploitative uses of the tech, and asking studios to respect the craft of human actors and artists.
The success of Arc Raiders also highlights a hard truth. It is naive to assume that the market will automatically punish AI heavy games. Many players will still jump into a fun shooter even if the voices or some assets are generated. That means ethical and creative debates around AI will not be solved just by people refusing to buy certain games.
Some voice actors and industry veterans argue that there is a clear path forward. If a game uses AI voices early on because of budget constraints and then becomes a hit, the studio should go back and replace those lines with human performances. With more resources available after launch, paying real actors becomes a relatively small cost compared to overall revenue. It can also dramatically improve the quality and emotional impact of the game.
Right now, Embark seems caught between the convenience of AI tools and a growing awareness of their drawbacks. On the practical side, AI helped them ship Arc Raiders with voiced characters and maintain a high level of content production with a modest team. On the artistic and ethical side, the results are inconsistent, the dialogue often feels lifeless, and the studio faces ongoing criticism from players and professionals.
For gamers, Arc Raiders is more than just another extraction shooter. It is a case study in how AI is reshaping game development. The game shows what AI can currently do, where it still falls short, and how studios are wrestling with the balance between cost savings, creative ambition, and respect for human talent.
As AI tools continue to improve, more games will likely experiment with them. The key questions will remain the same. Are these tools being used to make better experiences for players or simply to cut corners. And when a game does find success, will studios invest some of that success back into human creators to elevate the final product.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/even-after-its-success-embark-design-lead-is-still-lukewarm-on-ai-usage-for-arc-raiders-i-dont-think-its-fallen-any-way-or-the-other/
