CD Projekt Red Turns to AI to Adjust Geralt's Voice Amid Actor's Health Issues

CD Projekt Red is preparing a new expansion for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, more than eleven years after the base game first released in 2015. The studio has also said it will use an AI tool to modify the voice of Geralt, the series' protagonist, in the Polish version of the game. The change follows a health issue experienced by the Polish actor who voices him.

The decision puts a spotlight on a question that has become common across the games industry: how studios handle a performer's voice when that performer cannot record new lines. Voice work for a long-running role like Geralt involves many hours of recording, and any new content needs to sound consistent with the lines players already know. Using an AI tool to adjust the voice is one way to keep the character sounding like himself without requiring the actor to record while dealing with a condition that affects his ability to do so.

The available information is limited. The source material does not spell out which lines the tool will alter, how extensively the voice will be changed, or whether the actor was involved in approving the process. Those are the questions fans and performers are likely to ask, and they are worth watching as the expansion gets closer to release.

For players, the practical result may be subtle. The main concern for many will be whether the altered voice blends naturally with the original recordings. For the wider industry, the case adds another example of AI being used in performance work, an area where voice actors have pushed for clear consent and fair compensation terms.