Call of Duty fans spotted something surprising last week with Season 1 Reloaded adding a bizarre six-fingered Zombie Santa Clause to Black Ops 6, leading to accusations the development team were leaning on generative AI.
Sadly, a new report will do little to quell those concerns, with reports suggesting that the reason that some of the characters in the game's popular Zombies mode have been recast is due to a lack of protection against AI usage.
With developer Treyarch said to be "panicked" by the development, fans are concerned that this could spell the end of characters they've spent dozens of hours with.
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Zombies actors reportedly recast
Longtime Call of Duty insider TheGhostOfHope has posted on X (formerly Twitter) that there's "panic within Treyarch at the moment".
"Almost all of the actors that feature in the Zombies crew in Black Ops 6 Zombies have pulled out of working over the lack of AI protections in their contracts."
"This has resulted in some of the disappointing recasts we are now seeing early on (Ex: SAM on Citadelle), with some likely still to be recast in future maps etc."
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This lack of commitment to not using AI to replace voice actors has reportedly led to Samantha Maxis' voice talent, Julie Nathanson, being removed from the game in recent weeks.
Nathanson has a long history with the series, voicing Samantha Maxis across multiple entries in Zombies modes.
We've reached out for comment from Activision Blizzard on this and will update this story accordingly.
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