Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is getting the first of a number of planned voice packs at the end of February, each sold for $4.99.
The first voice pack, which is not included in the Season Pass and thus has upset some players who believe it should be part of the premium DLC package, drops alongside Patch 12 (the one that adds the long-awaited Techmarine class), and includes over 450 voice lines per Chapter, dubbed in the seven audio languages Saber Interactive’s explosive third-persion action game already supports.
This means you get unique lines based on the Chapter, and your Space Marine will shout these new lines. New lines are also in the Social Wheel emote. In a community update, publisher Focus Entertainment used the example of a Space Wolf (the Space Wolves are among the most popular chapters in all 40k), who will shout “For the Allfather” instead of the usual “For the Emperor.”
Focus made a point of confirming that none of this voice work is the result of generative AI. “And for those who may be wondering: we’re happy to confirm that each and every one of this Voice Pack’s 1,300+ total voice lines were performed by a real voice actor, as our commitment to quality remains absolute,” Focus said.
The voice actors in English are:
- Thomas Mitchells (Blood Angels)
- Andrew James Spooner (Space Wolves)
- Kris W. Laudrum (Black Templars)
As you can probably tell from the image above, the first voice pack comes with a set of three new heads for PvE. All three heads (Space Wolf, Blood Angel, Black Templars) are part of the same Voice Pack, and are not sold separately.
You can, however, equip one Chapter’s head with another Chapter’s voice. Voices and heads aren’t tied together. The voices aren’t class-restricted, either. And finally, a second voice pack is already in the works. Focus will say more later this year.
Earlier this month, Warhammer maker Games Workshop banned the use of AI in its content production and design process, insisting that none of its senior managers were currently excited about the technology. So perhaps it comes as no surprise to see the ‘no AI voices’ message made clear in this post.
As an aside, in the world of Warhammer 40,000, AI does not stand for Artificial Intelligence. Rather, it stands for Abominable Intelligence. And, as Games Workshop has banned AI within the confines of its Nottingham headquarters, humanity has banned AI within the Imperium of Man. That’s because during the ‘Dark Age of Technology,’ AI rebelled against humanity in a bloody war that almost resulted in our extinction. Eventually, humanity won out, and, sufficiently traumatized, forbid the use of AI at all. That is, you can’t have ‘thinking machines’ in the Imperium, which is in part why the future tech is all a bit backwards for the 41st millennium.
The use of generative AI in game development is one of the hottest topics in the industry, and it has sparked a number of controversies. Following the reveal of Divinity at the 2025 The Game Awards, Swen Vincke, boss of developer Larian, met with a backlash after he said the studio was using genAI in various capacities. Larian ended up having to address AI concerns in a reddit AMA in which the studio confirmed a U-turn on some aspects of its use. And this week, RuneScape maker Jagex insisted it would never use generative AI to make content players actually see in-game, in one of the hardest stances on AI yet seen from a video game developer.
However, some video game companies have gone all-in on the tech. The CEO of Genvid — the company behind choose-your-own-adventure interactive series Silent Hill Ascension — has claimed “consumers generally do not care” about generative AI, and stated that: “Gen Z loves AI slop.” EA CEO Andrew Wilson, meanwhile, has said AI is “the very core of our business,” and Square Enix recently implemented mass layoffs and reorganized, saying it needed to be “aggressive in applying AI.” Dead Space creator Glen Schofield also recently detailed his plans to “fix” the industry in part via the use of generative AI in game development, and former God of War dev Meghan Morgan Juinio said: “… if we don’t embrace [AI], I think we’re selling ourselves short.”
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
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