Arc Raiders developer Embark might have retreated slightly on the use of AI-generated voices in its game, but company owner Nexon has big plans for the use of AI, and it’s using the success of Arc Raiders as proof of concept for it.
“Beyond the breakaway commercial success, Arc Raiders is a Trojan Horse,” Nexon president and CEO Junghun Lee said in a financial presentation held 31st March – “a gift that contains a shift in the mindset about how technology frees developers and live service teams to spend more time thinking and less time typing. More time innovating; less time writing code.”
Arc Raiders was criticised for featuring AI-generated voice lines instead of having actors record the lines – a decision Embark later walked back on by having actors re-record some of them. But that wasn’t the only way AI tools were used in development of the game. “During the development process, we may use procedural- and AI-based tools to assist with content creation,” the Arc Raiders Steam page notes. Though, “In all such cases, the final product reflects the creativity and expression of our own development team.”
Lee was talking about Arc Raiders’ AI-use while promoting Nexon’s Mono Lake AI initiative during the presentation. “Nexon has used AI tools for some time and we’re quickly moving past the tool level to applying context to everything we do,” Lee said.
Referring to Arc Raiders’ use of the tools, Lee added: “It changes how people work – the tools they use, how fast they can move, what they can accomplish. But what goes into our games – the creative content our players actually experience – that remains the work of our developers. Our methodology doesn’t replace creative people, it frees them to create, with context.
“Today, our best people spend more time making creative decisions – decisions guided by context, context based on billions of player decisions, context that precious few companies can match.”
Patric Soderlund, the founder and CEO of Embark, and the recently appointed executive chairman of Nexon, was even more strident with his remarks about the potential of Mono Lake AI. “At Embark, we started with a blank slate, questioning everything from: How do you get from an idea to a green light? To what needs to be done by hand versus what a machine can do more efficiently?” he said. “Yes, some of that involves AI. But it’s really about encouraging people to use smarter processes, better tools, and to let go of habits that no longer serve them.
“Our success wasn’t an accident, it was deliberate. And now we’re bringing that thinking to the rest of Nexon” -Patrick Soderlund
“The initial outcome of that process is two games: The Finals and then Arc Raiders. Two games, built with significantly fewer people, at a fraction of the cost you’d expect for a AAA game. Our success wasn’t an accident,” he added, “it was deliberate. And now we’re bringing that thinking to the rest of Nexon.”
Arc Raiders was the stand-out star for Nexon in the financial presentation, having delivered “the most successful launch in company history with more than 14m units sold in 15 weeks”, Soderlund said. The game’s performance was even more important for Nexon, a South Korean-Japanese company, in that it was predominantly Western success – something the company hasn’t before experienced.
An overwhelming 85 percent of the game’s revenue came from North America and Europe, Soderlund said. “Arc Raiders is the first real proof that Nexon can build something that lands with a global audience,” he added. “That’s not a small thing, it changes how the market should think about what this company can become. And the game is still early. It’s live and it’s growing. What’s ahead of it is bigger than what’s behind it.”
As for what’s next for Arc Raiders, Junghun Lee revealed that “there are multiple projects in development at Embark”. “While it’s still too early to offer details, each has the benefit of the Arc Raiders playbook – smaller, more nimble creative teams, using new technology to simplify time-consuming, less-creative work in order to focus on breakthrough innovation. Arc Raiders provides us with a roadmap for success in Western markets, on consoles, and, with alternative pricing models.”
