'I'm not going to criticize other games, but all of our voices are done by humans' — Crimson Desert dev suggests the upcoming game won't feature characters voiced by AI

• Crimson Desert marketing director Will Powers has suggested the game doesn't feature generative AI voice acting
• Powers confirms that "all the main NPCs and those in side quests have actors' voices"
• However, he refrains from saying if "100% of the NPCs have human voices"

Amid the increasing popularity of generative AI in video games, Pearl Abyss has said that Crimson Desert will be fully voiced by human beings.

In an interview with the Dropped Frames podcast(via Eurogamer), marketing director Will Powers was asked whether the characters in the upcoming open-world game will be voiced by humans.

While Powers didn't want to "100%" confirm that all NPCs have human voices, the developer did assure fans that the main cast does.

"I'm not going to criticize other games, but all of our voices are done by humans," Powers said. "I'm refraining from saying that 100% of the NPCs have human voices [...] because if that's not the case for even one NPC, I don't want the internet to accuse me of lying."

Powers didn't directly call out the other games he was talking about, but we've seen games like The Finals and Arc Raiders utilize generative AI tools for NPCs.

"But yes," Powers continued, "all the main NPCs and those in side quests have actors' voices. The game features voice acting in different languages."

Crimson Desert will offer English, Korean, and Chinese language options at launch, and it's reported that more languages could be in development for after release.

In the same interview, Powers confirmed that the $69.99 game won't feature microtransactions or a cosmetic cash shop, explaining that it is "made to be a premium experience that you buy and you enjoy the world, and not something for microtransactions."

Powers added, "It’s a monetization model. If you do free-to-play, then you need to make up the revenue in a different way. This is a premium experience. That is the transaction. Full stop."

We won't have much longer to wait, because Crimson Desert launches next month on March 19 for PS5, Xbox Series X and Series S, and PC.

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