CD Projekt Red Uses AI to Adjust Geralt’s Polish Voice

CD Projekt Red is using artificial intelligence to adjust Jacek Rozenek’s newly recorded Polish dialogue as Geralt of Rivia for the upcoming Witcher 3 expansion, Songs of the Past. The studio says the treatment is intended to bring his current voice closer to his performance in the original game, and that Rozenek consented to the process.

Rozenek, who has voiced Geralt in the Polish versions of the games, suffered a stroke in 2019 that left him unable to speak for a period. He later returned to acting, but his voice had changed. CD Projekt Red localisation producer Mikołaj Szwed said the new recordings sounded lower and rougher than the lines recorded about 12 years earlier. Because the expansion is set in the same era as the main game, the studio wanted to reduce the contrast between old and new dialogue.

Rozenek recorded all of the new Polish Geralt lines for the expansion. CD Projekt Red then provided the recordings to Respeecher, a Ukrainian company that uses artificial intelligence to alter voices. The studio says the system drew on Rozenek’s earlier recordings to adjust the new lines toward his younger voice; it did not replace him as the performer.