CD Projekt Red have reportedly enlisted Ukrainian AI firm Respeecher to modify voice lines recorded for the Polish version of Geralt of Rivia in The Witcher 3‘s upcoming Songs of the Past expansion. The move’s been made with the permission of Geralt’s Polish voice actor, Jacek Rozenek, and is rooted in the studio wanting his new lines to sound similar to the ones he recorded for the original game prior to having a stroke which has altered how he sounds.
Game File report that after suffering a stroke in 2019 and having to rehabilitate his speech, Rozenek was able to record some lines as Geralt for a quest in The Witcher 3’s 2022 next-gen update, but that doing so left the actor “so exhausted”. With next year’s Songs of the Past expansion, CD Projekt Red were seemingly more concerned about making sure lines recorded by post-stroke Rozenek don’t sound markedly different to those he recorded a decade ago for the base game and its existing expansions.
After a meeting between the two sides confirmed that Rozenek’s voice had grown lower and gruffer due to some combination of the stroke and him simply getting older, the studio made the decision not to recast the actor, but instead let modify Respeecher modify his lines to make them sound closer to those original recordings. Rozenek reportedly gave his blessing for this to go ahead. “The point is that this voice should be as close as possible to my voice from 12 years ago,” he told Game File. “I have great trust…for the creators of this game.”
This isn’t the first time CD Projekt Red have enlisted Respeecher’s services. Back in 2023, it was revealed that the studio had used speech synthesis software to make ripperdoc Viktor Vektor’s lines in the Polish version of Cyberpunk 2077‘s Phantom Liberty expansion sound like actor Miłogost Reczek. Reczek died in 2021 before he could reprise his role as Vektor for the DLC, so rather than recasting the character across the whole game to avoid noticeable differences in voice, CD Projekt got another actor to voice Vektor’s new lines for Phantom Liberty, then used the genAI tech to make those lines sound like Reczek was delivering them. CD Projekt Red said at the time that they’d gotten permission from Reczek’s family before going ahead with their plan.
Speaking to Game File about this latest use of genAI on Rozenek’s Songs of the Past lines, CD Projekt localisation producer Mikołaj Szwed noted that “as a person working with voice actors over all the regions in the world, this is a big concern“. “I do think this is one of those ways where you can use AI ethically, with consent and also to do something good,” he added. The argument the studio are making at current is that this was “a special case” due to Rozenek’s specific situation with Songs of the Past.
Geralt’s English voice actor Doug Cockle reportedly won’t have his lines for the new expansion get the same genAI treatment, nor will any lines Rozenek records for future Witcher games, with the studio seemingly happy to lean on the passage of in-game time as an explanation for Geralt sounding different in the latter case.
As ever, there’s a debate to be had as to whether CD Projekt Red should have simply recast Rozenek’s role in Songs of the Past if the difference bothered them so, possibly while bringing the actor on to help tutor whomever his human replacement for Songs of the Past would be in nailing the exact gravelly tone needed for Geralt. That way, you’d have two actors being paid for work rather than forking out for genAI instead of one of them, though it’s possibly an idea that’d only work well in theory. If I were Rozenek I’m not sure I’d be totally happy aiding someone who could potentially be tapped to replace me going forwards, though it does very much seem like the lesser of two evils when compared to the potential of voice actors being replaced by genAI line readings.
As far as the game alone is concerned, I’m also not sure Geralt’s voice being different in the new expansion is something that’d bother me too much when playing. One would assume he’d not suddenly be sounding like a member of Alvin and the Chipmunks, and there are plenty of storyline justifications you could concoct or lean on for him sounding that bit gruffer at times.
