By Both Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4 have recently been accused of using AI-generated voices, but publisher Blizzard Entertainment says that’s not the case for either game.
For Diablo 4, a now-removed Reddit post claimed the game’s Spanish dub used AI and featured new NPCs who “aren’t even speaking or pronouncing correctly.” That prompted community lead Adam ‘PezRadar’ Fletcher to set the record straight. “It is clearly a bug,” he commented. “We typically have robotic temp voices generated in-game prior to final VO going in. Something wasn’t plugged in correctly for this with the final VO. We will get it fixed up.”
Overwatch 2’s situation is somewhat more complicated, though. Fans playing the game in German noticed that a new battle pass voice line, featuring iconic healer Mercy, sounded much different to the Mercy players had known over the last eight years or so. Of course, AI accusations began to fly about thereafter.
Public relations manager Eric Elliott then chimed in to confirm the new German voices also “are not AI-generated,” it’s just that “certain localized voice lines in some recent Blizzard game content are currently unavailable or unchanged” for unspecified reasons.
Mercy’s German VA has been likely replaced by AI from r/Overwatch
“Out of respect for all parties, we will not add new commentary as discussions are ongoing,” Elliott adds. “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.”
The Overwatch situation sounds a tad more messy than the Diablo one, as Elliott seems to imply that there’s more to the situation than simply a bug.
At least for now, the publisher doesn’t seem like it’s going down the generative AI route with these two games since Steam requires that developers need to disclose if they’re using AI, and Activision Blizzard certainly isn’t shy about the practice on Call of Duty’s store page.