The Finals is adding personalized AI commentary with its PRIME TIME update on October 20, letting Scotty recognize players by name after clutch plays and unfortunate fails. Learn more about how this feature works and the game's history of using AI commentators.
The Finals Commentators Will Announce Player Names in Select Highlights
Experimental Feature Launches With A Handful of Scenarios on October 20
The Finals is adding a live commentary feature that recognizes players by name, letting in-game co-commentator Scotty announce clutch plays or unfortunate fails during the match. Developer Embark Studios detailed this system in a video posted on its official The Finals X (Twitter) account on October 18, announcing it will arrive as part of the massive PRIME TIME update on October 20.
As part of The Finals’ violent game-show aesthetic, in-game commentators Scotty and June use AI text-to-speech to provide diegetic commentary throughout each round as they react to notable plays. In the video, Embark’s audio director Carl Strandberg and technical audio and dialogue designer Simon Svanbäck explain how the latest update adds a personal touch, with Scotty recognizing a limited selection of gameplay events while also reading the player’s name. The video showcased a few of these contextual highlights with in-game footage, such as a long-range shot, claiming the Cashout, a solo teamwipe, and even falling off the map.
The studio is initially targeting a handful of personalized comments per match, with plans to expand the situations Scotty can recognize. "We will slowly ramp up the number of moments Scotty can comment on," the developers explain, emphasizing that this is an experimental beta. Additionally, the system will respect the privacy of Anonymous Mode and Streamer Mode by not calling out the player's real in-game name.
Strandberg says this first iteration is a step toward making The Finals truly dynamic and immersive, one of the game's biggest goals. The team also outlined this philosophy last September in their blog post "A New Chapter," where Executive Producer Christian Aarsrud said they're reworking how contestants, teams, and arenas are introduced, as well as how the show "looks, feels, and unfolds while you're playing."
Contestants (The Finals players) who were playing around December 2024 would recall an earlier experiment with player names, when a bug caused commentators to repeatedly reference one of the previous season’s top players, prompting a fix within the same month. Embark acknowledged that the line was used too often and referenced only one name, adding that the feature needed further tuning without explaining what it was at the time.
AI Remains A Useful Production Tool for Embark
However, the reception was not always warm. The Finals’ synthetic voices drew criticism in an earlier 2023 Meet the Makers podcast, where audio designer Andreas Almström explained that AI text-to-speech helped the team respond quickly to new ideas, letting them implement voiceover for a new mode in "just a matter of hours instead of months." This drew pushback from voice actors like Gianni Matragano (Gabriel in Ultrakill, Stalker in Warframe), who argued that voice performers are regularly working on rush projects when needed.
The game's use of AI voices came up again in a March 2026 interview with GamesIndustry.biz, where Embark CEO Patrick Söderlund addressed concerns about the studio replacing or avoiding paying performers. He explained that actors are paid for their recording sessions and, for selected uses, separately for permission to license their voices through text-to-speech. Many also return to record additional material as the studio updates its games.
In the same interview, Söderlund talked about using less synthetic dialogue in its other shooter, ARC Raiders. The CEO said the studio had re-recorded some lines with human performers, acknowledging that "a real professional actor is better than AI; that’s just how it is." Nevertheless, he said AI remained a useful production tool, letting the team test dialogue before deciding what to record.
Dynamic AI commentary is one part of PRIME TIME on October 20, which is shaping up to be The Finals’ biggest update yet. Embark is also reworking arenas, redesigning the HUD, and delivering its most significant destruction upgrade since launch. Check out our review for The Finals below:
Sources:
The Finals A New Chapter
The Finals December 2024 Patch Notes
Embark's Meet the Makers Audio Podcast
GameIndustry.biz Interview with CEO Söderlund
