Diablo 4 Season 8 has only recently started, and has been the source of controversy — allegations of AI-voicing in the Spanish localization have been leveled by the community. Similar complaints happened in Overwatch, for the German localization as well, with players complaining about robotic, “AI” voices. While this is the allegation, Blizzard Entertainment made a statement that ardently denies that these new NPCs are using any kind of generative AI voicing.
It’s certainly concerning to hear that AI voicing might be used in some of the biggest games on the planet, that it is likely not what’s happening. It’s likely a mixup somewhere, but to see it happen in two games is certainly concerning. Here’s what Blizzard had to say about the situation.
Blizzard Entertainment has actively denied allegations of AI-voicing for Diablo 4 localization
Shortly after the launch of Diablo 4 Season 8, complaints and allegations of AI voicing in the Spanish localization came up, in at least one Reddit thread. The post that we found had been deleted, with the flag “Title is mildly misleading” put on it. Redditor Lottus21 accused the game of using AI voicing, where the NPCs aren’t speaking or pronouncing things correctly.
Despite the post being deleted, PezRadar, perhaps better known as Adam Fletcher, Director of Social and Content Marketing for Diablo replied to the post, seen above. Adam pointed out that it’s a bug, and that it was going to get fixed soon.
Before long, the official statement would come from the Overwatch forums, since a similar complaint was levied about the German localization for Mercy’s lines in the new Gundam Wing collab. This came from Public Relations Manager Eric:
“These voice lines are not AI-generated. Certain localized voice lines in some recent Blizzard game content are currently unavailable or changed. Out of respect for all parties, we will not add new commentary as discussions are ongoing. We look forward to a mutually beneficial outcome as soon as possible where we can bring the talents and creative contributions from these performers back into our games for players to enjoy.”
It’s incredibly unlikely that this was ever AI. In the early hours of the Diablo 4 Alpha, many of the voices weren’t in the game, and weren’t ready yet. This is common in games development, to put something in the game as a placeholder.
Now, it is unfortunate that it happened, and we hope to see less of this in the future. However, this is almost certainly not AI voices being used in either Season 8 of Diablo 4, or Overwatch.
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Edited by Jason Parker
