The team-based shooter THE FINALS will feature personalized commentary based on artificial intelligence. The update will be available in beta in Season 12 on October 20. Thanks to the new system, virtual commentator Scotty will be able to address players directly by their in-game nicknames during the match, evaluating both successful moments and failures.
The team-based shooter THE FINALS will feature personalized commentary based on artificial intelligence. The update will be available in beta in Season 12 on October 20. Thanks to the new system, virtual commentator Scotty will be able to address players directly by their in-game nicknames during the match, evaluating both successful moments and failures.
This was announced by developers from Embark Studios on the social network X (Twitter). As explained by audio director Carl Strandberg and technical sound designer Simon Swanbeck, the commentator will react to events in real time. Scotty will evaluate accurate shots from long distances, capturing Cashout, eliminating the entire enemy team or even accidentally falling outside the map.
To create a seamless soundtrack, the developers used a hybrid audio system. On-the-fly generated lines are combined with pre-recorded content. Embark assured that the system respects privacy and will automatically hide nicknames when using "Streamer Mode" or anonymous mode.
The feature will launch in beta with a limited set of scenarios, and executive producer Christian Aarsrud said it’s part of an overall philosophy of reimagining how the show’s setting looks and feels in-game.
Let your name resonate in the Arena. Dynamic Commentary is the new feature that will earn you praise from your favorite commentator Scotty, coming in PRIME TIME on Oct. 20! Live commentary in a live match for the play you just pulled. Now this is what a Game Show is all about! 📢
— THE FINALS (@reachthefinals) October 18, 2026
This is not the first attempt to implement such a feature: during an experiment in December 2024, due to a bug, commentators constantly called the name of only one of the top players from the previous season, which led to the function being temporarily disabled.
Recall that the use of AI voices in THE FINALS has previously repeatedly sparked discussions in the community and criticism from professional voice actors .
In a March 2026 interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Embark CEO Patrick Söderlund allayed concerns about the move away from human labor. He assured that actors are paid for recording sessions and receive separate royalties for licensing their voices to TTS systems. Söderlund also admitted that for the upcoming shooter ARC Raiders, the studio decided to re-record some of the lines with live actors because "a real professional actor still plays better than an artificial intelligence."
