Does arc raiders use AI?
Yes — ARC Raiders uses AI text-to-speech for some voice lines, built from voices Embark Studios licensed from paid actors. After backlash, Embark replaced some AI lines with human recordings. CEO Patrick Söderlund: "There is a quality difference. A real professional actor is better than AI; that's just how it is." No generative AI was used for visual assets.
Why — the first-principles explanation
The interesting thing about ARC Raiders isn't that a studio used AI. It's where they used it, and why that specific spot.
Multiplayer games have a voice problem that scales badly. Story dialogue is finite — you write it, actors perform it, done. But systemic dialogue isn't finite. Every time a player pings a location, the character should say the name of that location. With hundreds of locations, item names, and enemy types, and constant post-launch additions, the combinatorial space of lines explodes. Recording all of it means dragging actors back into a booth every patch, forever, for lines nobody consciously listens to. This is exactly the seam where text-to-speech gets attractive: high volume, low emotional weight, constantly changing.
So Embark did something more careful than "replace actors with robots." They hired real actors, paid them for all booth time, and separately paid a licensing fee for permission to use their voices through text-to-speech — reserving TTS for lines Söderlund described as not essential to immersion, mostly location pings. Consent and payment were in place. The actors weren't scanned without knowing.
And it still caused a backlash. That's the part worth sitting with, because it shows the objection wasn't purely about consent. Players and voice actors — including Neil Newbon, who publicly called on Embark to bring the cast back in to re-record — heard the difference. Synthetic delivery is flat in a way you notice even in a throwaway line, because human performance carries micro-timing and breath that TTS smooths out. The lines sounded like a machine reading a label, because that's what they were.
Embark's response is the honest data point. They re-recorded many of the TTS lines with actors and their CEO said plainly that the professional actor is simply better. Notably, they replaced some, not all — meaning the studio still uses TTS where it judges the tradeoff worthwhile. And they used no generative AI for visual assets at all.
The generalizable lesson: consent and payment are necessary but not sufficient. The audience also has to not notice — and in a game that peaked near 500,000 concurrent Steam players, someone always notices.
An example that makes it click
Think about your car's GPS. When it says "turn left onto Maple Street," the "turn left onto" part sounds warm and human, and then "Maple Street" arrives slightly flat, a beat too even, stitched on. You've heard that seam a thousand times. It happens because there are millions of street names and nobody could record them all — so the machine says the ones that vary.
ARC Raiders hit exactly this. The emotional lines were performed. The location pings — the "Maple Street" part, endlessly variable, added to with every update — were synthesized from those same actors' licensed voices. And just like with your GPS, players heard the seam. Embark's answer was to send the actors back into the booth for the ones that mattered most.
Key facts
- ARC Raiders used AI text-to-speech for in-game voice lines, primarily location pings and other lines Embark judged 'not as essential to the immersion of the experience.'
- The TTS voices were built from audio provided by real actors who were paid a licensing fee for approval to license their voices through text-to-speech.
- After launch backlash, Embark replaced many — but explicitly not all — TTS lines with human-recorded dialogue.
- Embark CEO Patrick Söderlund said: 'There is a quality difference. A real professional actor is better than AI; that's just how it is.'
- No generative AI was used for the game's visual assets.
- The game launched in October 2025 and peaked at nearly 500,000 concurrent Steam players.
▶ The 60-second explainer (script)
Does ARC Raiders use AI? Yes — for some voice lines, using text-to-speech. But where they used it is the interesting part. Multiplayer games have a voice problem that scales badly. Story dialogue is finite: you write it, actors perform it, done. But systemic dialogue isn't finite. Every time a player pings a location, the character should say that location's name. Hundreds of locations, item names, enemy types — plus new ones every patch, forever. Recording all of that means dragging actors back into a booth every update for lines nobody consciously listens to. That's exactly the seam where text-to-speech gets attractive: high volume, low emotional weight, always changing. It's your car's GPS. 'Turn left onto' sounds human, and then 'Maple Street' lands a beat too flat, stitched on. You've heard that seam a thousand times, because nobody can record every street name. Now, Embark did this more carefully than 'replace actors with robots.' They hired real actors, paid them for all booth time, and separately paid a licensing fee for permission to use their voices through TTS — only for lines they judged not essential to immersion, mostly pings. Consent and payment were in place. And it still caused a backlash. That's the part worth sitting with. Players and voice actors — including Neil Newbon, who publicly called on Embark to bring the cast back — heard the difference. Human performance carries micro-timing and breath that TTS smooths out. Embark's response is the honest data point: they re-recorded many of those lines, and CEO Patrick Söderlund said plainly, quote, a real professional actor is better than AI; that's just how it is. Note: some lines, not all. They still use TTS where they think it's worth it. And no generative AI was used for visual assets. The lesson generalizes. Consent and payment are necessary but not sufficient. The audience also has to not notice — and with 500,000 peak players, somebody always notices.
What authoritative sources say
People also ask
Are ARC Raiders' voices fully AI?
No. Story and emotional dialogue is performed by human actors. AI text-to-speech was used for high-volume systemic lines — mostly location pings — that Embark judged non-essential to immersion.
Did Embark pay the voice actors?
Yes. Embark says it pays actors for all time spent in the booth, and separately paid a licensing fee for approval to use their voices through text-to-speech.
Did Embark remove the AI voices after the backlash?
Partly. They replaced many TTS lines with human recordings, but explicitly only 'some' — the studio still uses text-to-speech for certain lines.
Does ARC Raiders use AI-generated art?
No. No generative AI was used for the game's visual assets.
Why did people notice the AI voices at all?
Synthetic delivery flattens the micro-timing and breath of human performance. Even in a throwaway line it reads as a machine reading a label — the same seam you hear when your GPS says a street name.