Ninja Theory, the Xbox subsidiary best known for Hellblade games, has clarified that it’s not replacing real actors with AI, allaying some fears after a report on the state of AI voice acting technology.
Asked by a fan on Twitter (opens in a new tab) if Ninja Theory was considering replacing voice actors with AI, the studio replied, “No. For clarity, we use this AI technology for placeholder content only to help us understand things like time and location in early stages of development. Then we collaborate with real actors whose performances are critical to bringing our stories to life.”
Ninja Theory’s comment comes in the wake of a report published by USA Today (opens in a new tab) about Altered AI, a company that creates AI voice acting technology. The report notes that while AI voice acting is already commonly used as a placeholder in development, many voice actors are concerned that the technology could evolve to a point where it replaces human performances with voice imitations. AI “soulless”.
Altered AI has already been used to provide voice acting in a released video game, as used in the 2021 action RPG The Ascent. (opens in a new tab) to voice many side quest NPCs. The report also notes that Ninja Theory is using the technology, though Altered AI didn’t provide any details on how that studio was using it.
Still, the report was enough to spark a wave of concern on social media about whether Ninja Theory was ready to move to AI voice acting for upcoming games like Hellblade 2, to the point where the studio felt the need to answer. The original Hellblade was particularly known for the performances of actors like Melina Juergens, and it seems that the capture of human performance continues in the studio for now.
See our guide to upcoming xbox series x games.
