Just a day after the launch of PvPvE extraction shooter ARC Raiders, developer Embark Studios has clarified that generative AI was not used in the game’s development. In an interview with GamesRadar, studio CCO and co-founder Stefan Strandberg revealed that the closest the developers got to using AI was making use of certain technology for text-to-speech voices.
Strandberg stated that about as much AI was used in ARC Raiders as there is in the studio’s other shooter, THE FINALS. Rather, the studio’s process for using these tools revolve around recordings of real actors combined with text-to-speech tools. “We use a combination of recordings of real actors and TTS,” he said. “So that’s true for this game as well.”
As for long-term plans, Strandberg noted that the studio does not intend to swap out the real actors in its games with AI tools. He said, “there’s no end goal in replacing any actors.” This is because, according to him, there is “something fantastical that happens when you bring real actors in, and they are contributing to the lore, as well as of this game world.”
When it comes to the text-to-speech tools, Strandberg said that it is part of the studio’s attempts to create larger worlds for its games despite the team itself being relatively small. “We are trying to maximize what we can, being a small team trying to get make rich worlds right, but still staying small… but we don’t use generative AI in other domains across the game,” he said.
ARC Raiders has only recently come out on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, and the launch has seemingly been incredibly successful for Embark Studios. On PC alone, the title managed to hit a concurrent peak of 165,888 players within a matter of hours. This number has since gone even higher, with an all-time peak of the last 24 hours coming in at 264,673 concurrent players. It is worth noting that these figures don’t take either of the console player bases into account.
While Embark Studios will continue to work on ARC Raiders with post-launch updates and other content planned, the developer has also noted that it has other projects in the works. In an interview earlier this week, CEO Patrick Söderlund mentioned that it had two projects in development that hadn’t been revealed yet. While confirming that online gaming is “just ingrained in our DNA,” Söderlund also noted that this doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re online games.
“That doesn’t mean that they’re online necessarily games the same way as THE FINALS or ARC Raiders,” said Söderlund. “One of the concepts we have has a lot more edge to it than THE FINALS or ARC Raiders does. The other one is a little bit more conventional.”
In the long term, Söderlund wants Embark Studios to be known for being a curious studio that also respects the players of its games. He said that the goal was “that we’re seen as a studio that is doing something positive for the industry, where our obvious goal is to try and treat the players that play our game with the deepest respect. To listen to them on a continuous basis, and to try and adapt and improve the games as such.”
