Embark Studios has achieved something remarkable: an extraction shooter that truly captures widespread appeal. Days before its official launch, Arc Raiders stands as the third most-wishlisted game on Steam, trailing only Subnautica 2 and Valve’s Deadlock. Beyond its player-friendly take on the genre—allowing optional account wipes and offering ways to recover lost gear—the game’s striking visual style and immersive sound design have clearly resonated with players. Although it shares the familiar post-disaster setting of many extraction shooters, Embark’s innovative designs for raider gear, formidable robots, and a captivating synth soundtrack make it truly stand out. However, some players have noticed a somewhat ambiguous artificial intelligence disclosure on Steam, raising questions about AI’s role in Arc Raiders’ stunning visuals.
“Arc Raiders uses no generative AI whatsoever,” confirmed design director Virgil Watkins in a recent interview, speaking ahead of the game’s launch. “We do employ machine learning, specifically reinforcement learning, but this is exclusively for the locomotion of our larger, multi-legged drones. There is absolutely no generative content involved.”
When pressed further on whether this was the sole reason for the Steam AI disclosure, especially considering Embark’s previous use of a text-to-speech system for new voice lines in their first multiplayer title, The Finals, Watkins admitted he wasn’t entirely certain about the storefront page specifics. However, he did confirm that the same voice line technology is indeed present in Arc Raiders.
“As you mentioned, we use the same text-to-speech model as in The Finals. We contract voice actors, and it’s part of their agreement that we use AI for this specific purpose. This enables features like our comprehensive ping system, which can articulate every single item name, location, and compass direction. It’s how we manage to achieve this level of detail without needing actors to record new lines every time a new in-game item is introduced.”
Interestingly, earlier in the week, Embark CEO Patrick Soderlund discussed the studio’s use of AI in an interview with The Game Business. Reflecting on Arc Raiders’ initial concept—which was purely a PvE experience before its transformation into the current PvPvE format—he stated that “the game’s core loop was heavily reliant on profound AI innovations, encompassing both reinforcement learning, machine learning, and other related aspects. We believed we could construct an entire game around this experience.”
A video showcasing Arc Raiders gameplay.
Later in the same interview, Soderlund elaborated on how Embark harnesses artificial intelligence and procedural generation to accelerate its development pipeline, including within “content creation processes.”
“If you aim for development that’s 100 times faster, you must discard your conventional methods and genuinely rethink the modifications and transformations required to fundamentally alter your approach,” Soderlund explained. “That’s when we began exploring procedurally generated content, utilizing AI and machine learning to some extent even in our content creation pipelines, and redesigning our tools, recognizing that many of our long-used tools originated from software 25 to 30 years old.”
Another video featuring Embark Studios insights.
So, while AI has undeniably played a role in Arc Raiders’ development, Watkins is explicit that generative AI did not contribute to its distinctive visual appeal. For a deeper dive, you can explore more discussions with Watkins regarding the team’s Dark Souls-inspired difficulty, what happens when you wipe, and other game details.
Before jumping into the game’s upcoming launch, it’s wise to review the Arc Raiders system requirements. Additionally, helpful guides on Arc Raiders Hatch Keys and the best Arc Raiders builds will be available to enhance your experience.
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