ARC Raiders dev acknowledges critics for the first time. „We are not deaf to concerns,” assures Virgil Watkins
The developers of ARC Raiders do not intend to abandon AI as long as the technology is useful and the final quality satisfactory. At the same time, they are not deaf to the concerns that come with it.
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The use of artificial intelligence in games continues to stir a lot of emotions, as recently experienced by Larian Studios. The devs are very divided on the issue—some fully embrace AI, while others completely distance themselves from it. One of the most talked-about titles whose creators have utilized the technology is ARC Raiders. They have now admitted that they are not deaf to the concerns of its critics.
What's next for AI in ARC Raiders?
ARC Raiders turned out to be a huge success, which has given Embark Studios significantly more opportunities. The money earned can be used, for example, to hire real voice actors instead of using an AI model to generate dialogues.
However, this is just one of several potential paths. The success of the game might also mean that most players are not concerned with AI and simply expect a good game. As a result, Embark Studios might be even more inclined to use this technology and develop its own tools around it. There is also the option that the creators will not go to either extreme and will continue to operate as they have been.
This is exactly what PCGamesN asked Virgil Watkins, the lead designer at Embark Studios. In response, we found out that it all boils down to how useful the technology is, but it's unlikely that they'll go for any extreme approach.
Honestly, I don't think it's fallen any way or the other. As with all the tools we build or make use of, [it comes down to]: 'Does it ultimately let us do something we couldn't before, or is it an added [bonus] to the game?' With the TTS stuff, I think it was an unlock for us to be able to do voiced characters when we, at the time, did not have capacity to do so
The creators are aware that they now have much greater capabilities. Watkins admitted that they can change the way they create things whose quality was not at the right level. However, we shouldn't expect an approach like: "let's open the gates for all kinds of AI, or even related tools." Especially since devs are well aware of the concerns surrounding the technology.
It is still very much in the vein of building what we can, the best we can. And a lot of it is just that avenue of exploring emerging tech and building our own tools for things, because that's what enabled us to build a lot of this with the team the size we have. So I think it'll be more of that in the future, and just trying to see what we can do for ourselves to, like, keep building content at the scale we have. But obviously we're not deaf to the concerns that are out there for it.
It turns out that ARC Raiders players should not expect a flood of AI-generated stuff. However, it's clear that Embark Studios isn't planning to ditch the tech as long as it's still useful, even though they've got way more resources now.
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Author: Martin Bukowski
Graduate of Electronics and Telecommunications at the Gdańsk University of Technology, who decided to dedicate his life to video games. In his childhood, he would get lost in the Gothic's Valley of Mines and "grind for gold" in League of Legends. Twenty years later, games still entertain him just as much. Today, he considers the Persona series and soulslike titles from From Software as his favorite games. He avoids consoles, and a special place in his heart is reserved for PC. In his spare time, he works as a translator, is creating his first game, or spends time watching movies and series (mainly animated ones).
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