Ninja Theory Addresses Concerns About AI Voice Acting

gamerant.com:

Voice acting is often considered to be a difficult field to break into, but a new report penned by GLHFManaging Editor Kirk McKeand suggests that new AI innovations may soon replace human voice actors altogether. The article lists development studios Neon Giant and Ninja Theory—the teams behind 2021’sThe Ascent and 2017’s Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice respectively—as two prominent studios that have already put this into practice. With that in mind, Ninja Theory quickly took to Twitter to clarify its position on artificial voice acting.

In a response to a question posed by Twitter user ImAlwaysBoyo, Ninja Theory asserted that, while it has implemented AI voice acting in the past, it was only ever intended for placeholder use early on in a development cycle. Artificially-voiced lines of dialogue are, according to the developer, later swapped out for genuine performances by actual voice actors. Ninja Theory has long been held as a paragon of video game development, and many fans will be pleased to see that it does not plan on cutting any corners in regard to voice acting.

PlayStation Fans Are Calling For A Heavenly Sword Remaster

Thus far, respondents on Twitter seem to have been assuaged by the explanation, and Ninja Theory’s transparency on the matter bodes well for the upcoming Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2. A long-anticipated sequel that was first teased in 2019, the new title will likely build on the deeply personal and intimate story of Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrfice, but that can only be done effectively by way of passionate, serious, and convincing voice acting.

This isn’t to say that the voice-acting algorithms in question weren’t surprisingly lifelike; the technology in question comes from the pioneering company Altered, and,