Embark Studios has been developing Arc Raiders for many years, and during that process many things have changed. From the pivot toward the extraction shooter format to modifications of its combat systems, the Swedish studio has adjusted many elements of the game. However, there was one decision they maintained for months that generated a great deal of criticism: the use of artificial intelligence to generate voices instead of hiring professional voice actors.

However, Embark Studios has changed its mind after Arc Raiders sold millions of copies and has now bet on the human factor. Patrick Söderlund, CEO of Embark, has recalled that the studio used AI-generated content during part of the development process, but chose to re-record those voice lines with real actors months after launch. “A real professional voice actor is better than AI. It’s just like that,” he acknowledges in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz. “We re-recorded some of the lines after launch and did them with real voices. There is a quality difference. We see [AI] first and foremost as a production tool. We can test things internally. We can try 15 different lines without recording them and then we know what to record. It’s also a way of working for us, not replacing actors. We don’t necessarily believe in replacing humans with AI all the time,” he explains.

PvE or PvP? Arc Raiders Shows What’s Better

At the same time, at Embark they have realized that there is more of a audience that prefers the pure PvE experience (player vs enemies), although a large part of the community loves the combination with PvP (player vs player). “It’s quite complicated because we have two very, very different types of fans,” indicates Caio Braga, production director at Embark, during a chat with PC Gamer after his talk at GDC 2026. From there, the team reorganizes Arc Raiders matchmaking based on the aggressiveness and behavior of players, so that it matters who shoots first since you could end up in matches with hostile players or with users who only want to defeat the Arc machines. The reality is that Arc Raiders does not have a PvE mode, but the developers do not rule out implementing it in the future given the high demand for this style of gameplay. What we will have in the short term could be temporary events focused on cooperation between players to obtain rewards.

Source: 3djuegos