Agenda

Voice chat has become one of the most powerful tools for player connection. It deepens immersion, strengthens communities, and keeps players engaged longer than almost any other feature. But for many studios—especially smaller teams—voice chat introduces a new and unexpected challenge: moderation at scale. While game developers may be tempted to address in-game comms moderation using LLMs, this approach overlooks fundamental challenges around cost, latency, and audio understanding.

In this session, Modulate's game engine and machine learning experts unpack the real-world tradeoffs behind the use and overreliance on LLMs for voice chat moderation. Speakers will share firsthand experience implementing voice chat moderation, both with and without LLMs: what worked, what didn't, and what operational burdens surprised them. Together, they will explore how teams often default to building internal tools to save money, only to discover that moderation infrastructure quietly drains time, talent, and focus away from making great games.

The session concludes with a practical discussion of how purpose-built solutions, not generalist LLMs, can help studios meet safety, legal, and cost challenges without reinventing a complex moderation platform from scratch—allowing teams to stay focused on creativity and game development.

Takeaway

Attendees will leave with:

- A clear understanding of the true costs of voice chat moderation
Beyond infrastructure, moderation requires training, tuning, policy development, and ongoing maintenance.

- A realistic framework for "build vs. buy" decisions
Especially for indie and mid-size studios with limited bandwidth and live-service ambitions.

- Actionable guidance for sustainable leadership
How to avoid over-engineering non-game systems and protect team focus, budget, and morale.

Intended Audience

This session is great for indie and mid-size game studios, especially those shipping or planning live-service games, and social, multiplayer, or UGC-driven experiences. This session is also intended for studio leadership and decision-makers for live-ops games including game directors, producers, technical leads, and solo developers.