Despite the undeniable success that Embark Studios has been seeing with its extraction shooter ARC Raiders, the studio has also been facing quite a bit of criticism for its use of AI-based tools that generate text-to-speech voices in the game. In a recent interview with Game*Spark, studio owner Nexon has stated that gamers should assume that just about every developer out there is using AI to some extent.
In the interview, as translated by Automaton Media, Nexon CEO Junghun Lee spoke about the use of AI in game development, and how just about every studio out there is using the technology in some way. To that end, he notes that even Embark Studios would need to use it since it essentially becomes a question of the studio’s survival.
“First of all, I think it’s important to assume that every game company is now using AI,” said Lee. “But if everyone is working with the same or similar technologies, the real question becomes: how do you survive? I believe it’s important to choose a strategy that increases your competitiveness.”
Embark Studios CCO and co-founder Stefan Strandberg had previously spoken about how AI would be used in ARC Raiders, noting that the usage in the PvPvE shooter is essentially at the same level as what we see in THE FINALS. “We use a combination of recordings of real actors and TTS,” he said. “So that’s true for [ARC Raiders] as well.” As for why these tools were used to begin with, Strandberg said that it was part of the studio’s attempts at creating larger worlds for its games despite the size of the studio itself staying 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.
The use of AI might be controversial to some, but it certainly hasn’t stopped ARC Raiders from hitting impressive milestones. Earlier this week, Nexon had revealed that more than 4 million copies of the shooter had been sold since its October 30th release date. This sales figure takes into account copies sold across PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
While the sales of ARC Raiders might great, even the concurrent player numbers for the extraction shooter have been quite impressive. Embark Studios recently celebrated the fact that the previous weekend saw more than 700,000 players experiencing the shooter at the same time.
“The many different ways you play and participate in ARC Raiders have completely blown us away, going far beyond what we ever imagined. You surprise us, you outsmart us, and you keep us on our toes. We wouldn’t have it any other way,” said the developers in a statement on social media. “The point being, you all push us to be better, and we’re truly grateful to have you along for this journey.”
ARC Raiders is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. For more details, check out our thoughts about why it and Battlefield 6 are stealing the spotlight from Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. Also check out our review while you’re at it.
