The Finals is in open beta right now. And while the game has seen an impressive player count since the beta began, it hasn’t come without its criticisms, specifically when it comes to the use of AI in The Finals
As noted by voice actor Gianni Matragrano, The Finals is using AI voices as opposed to real people within the game.
The use of AI voices was confirmed back during a 2023 podcast appearance by members of Embark Studios, the developer behind The Finals. During the show, an audio designer named Andreas confirmed that AI was used for the audio.
“Here’s the kicker, [it’s] what did the voiceovers,” he said in response to a question about who did the voiceovers. “The thing is, we use AI with a few exceptions. So all the contestant voices, like the barks, and both our commentators are AI text-to-speech.
“For things we call vocalizations, like player breathing, vaulting, jumping, that’s something we use us in the studio to record, just grunting. We can’t really get the AI to perform those kind of tasks yet.”
In response to the admission of it being AI voices in the game, voice actor Elsi Lovelock didn’t hold back.
“The kicker is, it STILL sounds like crap regardless of how “realistic” they think it sounds,” she said.
The discourse surrounding the use of AI for voices in not only The Finals but gaming, in general, has taken place online for a while now. It’s also one of the concerns surrounding a potential strike for video game voice actors.
What do you think of AI voices being used in The Finals? Does it bother you at all, or do you not even notice?
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