As part of one of the podcasts, the developers of the mass shooter The Finals said that the game will be voiced not by real people, but by artificial intelligence. However, this innovation was not to the taste of both the voice actors themselves and the community. Audio designers explained that the AI has become much more powerful, and “so you can get a voiceover in just a few hours, not months.” But no one seems to agree with them.
According to the voice actors, what was stated in the interview is poorly consistent with reality. Gianni Matragrano, known for his role as Gabriel from the game Ultrakill, said that they did not need to voice anything for months.
“We routinely fulfill rush orders within a day or two. If you need additional voice acting, you can order another session. It’s actually very simple and fast. I used to have my suspicions about the sound in The Finals, but now 150 thousand beta players are seeing it too.”
Zane Schacht, voice actor for Eternal, The Bard’s Tale IV and AFK Arena, also agrees with his position:
“Why the hell do the AI voiceover people act like hiring actors is some kind of arcane ritual? I made entire games in a few hours.”
How aptly they said PC Gamer: “Yes, you can ask an algorithm to create something. But art is dozens of purposeful choices that a machine cannot currently reproduce. It’s much the same with acting.” It seems audio designers just don’t see how ElevenLabs-generated voices irritate players who don’t care about development time or cost savings.
In the end, everyone stayed the same. Embark Studios does not plan to remove AI voices from the game, because “text to speech” technology is part of the very concept of The Finals.
