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Battlefield devs’ multiplayer shooter The Finals is full of AI voices - and oof, you can tellEmbark Studios says that text-to-speech tech “gets us far enough in terms of quality and allows us to be extremely reactive to new ideas”
Embark Studios says that text-to-speech tech “gets us far enough in terms of quality and allows us to be extremely reactive to new ideas”
Image credit:Embark Studios
Image credit:Embark Studios
The Finals, the cash-grabbing, destructible-scenerymultiplayer FPSfrom former Battlefield devs, iscurrently in the middle of an open betathat allows anyone to go and give its shoot-y, smash-y, cash-y gameplay a look. You’ll also be able to give it a listen - and you might notice something a little off about the announcers for its game show-within-a-game when you do. That’s right: they’re AI-generated voices, not human actors.
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Almström claimed that the decision to use AI-generated voices came down to the technology’s ability to provide voices that get close enough to sounding human, while being able to be generated in a relatively short time compared to getting human actors in the booth.
“The reason that we go this route is that AI text-to-speech is finally extremely powerful,” Almström said. “It gets us far enough in terms of quality and allows us to be extremely reactive to new ideas and keeping things really, really fresh.”
“If it sounds a bit off, it still blends kinda well with the fantasy of the virtual game show aesthetically,” Almström added in the podcast, seemingly heading off criticism of the uncanny AI voice performances. Personally, I’m not convinced - it doesn’t sound like a futuristic virtual announcer, just a text-to-speech programme that doesn’t know how to approach simple words in the way a regular human would, let alone a professional actor.
So I guess The Finals is going with AI voices…?pic.twitter.com/PIAbR43ZrT— Gianni Matragrano (@GetGianni)October 28, 2023
So I guess The Finals is going with AI voices…?pic.twitter.com/PIAbR43ZrT
Of course, that’s without pointing out the obvious ethical concerns surrounding the process of AI generation and its use in place of paid actors - something that has beena key point in the recent SAG-AFTRA strikes, as the union voiced concern around digital replicas of actors being used without informed consent or suitable payment.
“You can literally get pro-grade VO for less than a grand total, bang out a couple recording sessions and bam you have all the audio you need,” Matragrano said. “We actually make it very easy. And then it’ll just sound good and not be something even players who don’t really care about AI ethics keep complaining about.”
“We’re really coming into, like, a new dawn when it comes to video game voices,” the audio designer said.
Regardless of what you think of The Finals’ AI voices, one way or another, for better or worse, that is undoubtedly true.
