Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Used AI for a Deceased Voice Actor

Cyberpunk 2077’s latest DLC, Phantom Liberty brought the game’s reputation back to the top. Initially, Cyberpunk 2077 had a very rough start back in 2020 with huge problems such as not being able to deliver the advertised content and working terribly on consoles. Despite all of the issues that happened during the release, CD Projekt Red had been slowly bringing back the title to its glory by fixing bugs and implementing mechanics that were previously shown to the public.

The DLC on the other hand delivered a new story to follow while bringing color back to the title. It was received well after its release and thought it would have been better if CD Projekt Red postponed the game in order to meet the quality standards. The new storyline, Phantom Liberty, took some time to come out, and since then, a few things notable things happened in Cyberpunk 2077’s lifetime. One of them was the death of a prominent voice actor, Mi?ogost Reczek. He played the role of one of the doctors in-game, Viktor Vektor.

 

Rezcek also had taken part in titles such as Witcher 3, Detroit: Become Human, and Destiny 2, making him quite important in the voice actor business. He died back in 2021 at the age of 60. Since he had an established role in Cyberpunk 2077 and CD Projekt Red was on keeping Vektor's role, they had to resort to an unconventional method of adding voice lines to games nowadays.

Although, nowadays, creating the AI voice of famous actors or other people raises quite a bit of concern, the family of Rezcek was supportive of the decision. CD Projekt Red’s localization manager, Miko?aj Szwed said they initially searched for a new role to fill, presumably someone who had the same tone as Rezcek, however, they thought it would not be a reasonable choice to find someone else for the job. So they used an AI cloning service to replicate the voice of Rezcek with the permission of the family. If you hear Vektor during the Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, just keep in mind that it is a recreation of a bunch of other voices mashed together.

The usage of AI is not encouraged in the gaming industry. So much so that even with a slight addition to AI, whether it's writing, image alteration, or sound editing, people tend to not like the addition of non-human-made content. This was apparent when one of the oldest companies who still make games ended up using AI for their latest project where they made a Kickstarter to get funds from players. It affected a lot of people and made them feel awful for paying a creator to dump what they have into an AI blender. Although the same can be said for the voice actor in question, whether it is a moral thing to do or not is up to the people’s choice.

Atilla Turan (@burningarrow)
Editor, NoobFeed