AI is inserting itself into almost every video game conversation under the sun in 2026, and I had the chance to talk to Wolf Haus Games CEO Joe Dietsch, who is also the game’s creative director, about why the company is distancing itself from AI voice acting.
JOIN US is one of the most manic and maniacal games in development right now. Period. It’s stood out for its hilarious cult-like gameplay, and not only did I have the chance to play it at Gamescom 2026, but I also grabbed a quick word with the man behind a lot of its ideas and vision.
Wolf Haus Games CEO & JOIN US Creative Director on Lack of AI
After nearly 45 minutes of playing JOIN US, I picked Joe’s brain about the game, its background, and many other things. I couldn’t leave, though, without asking about a statement the studio made in a Steam news post about AI, focusing on “H.I.” (Human Intelligence) over AI.
There is no AI voice acting in the game. Even if this does take longer, cost more, and as the team put it: ‘Possibly putting robots out of work.’
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Joe elaborated on this direction:
“It’s something we feel really strongly about as a studio. We feel like part of the reason we like being a 13-person team is that we’re making a game that feels like it was made by a specific group of humans who made a choice to make something.
I think with that comes the need to say, hey, if we have actors, if you’re hearing voices, it should all be other human beings like making creative choices. I think that’s sort of how you maybe stand out in a saturated environment. You know, you want someone to feel like you’ve created something for them.
You had intention behind it and I think that should turn into voices and the voice acting. It has humor, and it has a very specific tone, and it’s something we really feel strongly about. It’s even in the UI. It’s drawn by one of our team, and she draw, at this point, hundreds of hand-drawn pictures. So every everything in the UI is completely hand drawn.”
JOIN US is currently penciled in for March 2027, and its multiplayer and playground of potential could spark more than just a cult following.
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Andy is Insider Gaming's Senior Evergreen Editor and has been in the games journalism sphere in one way or another for over 7 years. His video game taste is as…
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