CD Projekt has turned to artificial intelligence technology to ensure a consistent voice for Geralt of Rivia in the upcoming The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt expansion, Songs of the Past. Collaborating with AI voice developer Respeecher, the studio modified the performance of Polish voice actor Jacek Rozenek to match the vocal tone he used for the legendary monster slayer a decade ago.
The technical decision was driven by health challenges faced by Rozenek, who has voiced Geralt across all Polish editions of the franchise, including the original games, expansions, and subsequent adaptations. In 2019, Rozenek suffered a stroke that left him temporarily unable to speak. Through intensive rehabilitation, he recovered enough by 2021 to record new lines for The Witcher 3 next-gen update, though the grueling recording sessions left him visibly and physically exhausted.
Despite the challenges, Rozenek continued his vocal training and eventually returned to regular voice acting work. When CD Projekt began development on Songs of the Past, the studio naturally wanted him to reprise his signature role. However, the effects of the stroke and the passage of time caused a noticeable shift in Rozenek’s natural speaking voice. Because Songs of the Past is designed to take place directly within the narrative timeline of The Witcher 3, the vocal discrepancy presented a distinct creative hurdle. According to reports from gaming journalists who previewed the expansion, Rozenek’s untreated modern voice sounds significantly deeper, gravelly, and rougher than his iconic recordings from the original 2015 release.
To bridge this chronological gap while keeping Rozenek in the role, CD Projekt secured his full permission to involve Respeecher. While Rozenek performs all the dialogue and emotional delivery in the recording booth for the Polish version of the expansion, Respeecher’s machine-learning models process his audio files to adjust the pitch, tone, and texture, effectively restoring the vocal profile he maintained twelve years ago.
Synthetic speech artist Dmytro Vasylets explained that the objective was straightforward yet technically demanding: to make Jacek’s voice sound vibrant, rich, and youthful, consistent with the original game. Vasylets noted that achieving the desired result required dozens of hours of labor, including training specialized vocal models, collaborating closely with the CDPR audio team, and manually refining persistent AI artifacts. The greatest hurdle involved preserving Rozenek’s authentic emotional range—capturing intricate half-tones, sharp shouts, guttural groans, displays of anger, fear, and laughter without sacrificing high audio fidelity.
For his part, Rozenek expressed deep enthusiasm about returning to the character he knows so intimately. Because his understanding of Geralt’s personality, motivations, and delivery remains unchanged, he fully embraced the AI enhancement process as a tool to overcome his physical limitations rather than a replacement of his artistry. He emphasized that the primary goal was to align his current performance with his historical work, expressing complete trust in the game’s developers.
This project marks another milestone in CD Projekt’s ongoing experimentation with generative AI voice synthesis. The Polish studio previously utilized Respeecher technology during the production of Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty to recreate the performance of the late Polish voice actor Miłogost Reczek, who portrayed Viktor Vektor in Cyberpunk 2077 and Vesemir in The Witcher 3. Reczek passed away in 2021, and that voice replication was completed with the explicit blessing and cooperation of his family.
The broader integration of generative AI into the voice acting industry remains a contentious and highly sensitive subject. Performers across the entertainment and gaming sectors have fought fiercely to establish legal boundaries, safeguard their likenesses, and maintain creative control over their performances, highlighted by recent industry strikes involving SAG-AFTRA and major video game publishers.
CD Projekt itself maintains a cautious stance on generative AI. Studio representatives have acknowledged that utilizing AI tools presents complicated legal questions surrounding intellectual property ownership, noting that the studio has no plans to employ similar technology for upcoming projects like The Witcher 4. Localization producer Mikołaj Szwed described artificial intelligence as a significant concern for professionals who work closely with voice talent globally, emphasizing that the studio’s use of Respeecher in this instance was strictly a unique accommodation necessitated by Rozenek’s medical history.
Szwed confirmed that the studio has no intention of altering the voice of Doug Cockle, who voices Geralt in the English-language versions of the games. Furthermore, Rozenek’s voice will not be artificially altered in any potential future Witcher titles set later in the character’s timeline, as a naturally aged voice would naturally fit an older protagonist. The AI intervention was deemed necessary solely because Songs of the Past occurs mid-story, placing recordings separated by more than a decade directly side by side.
The intersection of veteran talent, aging actors, and vocal preservation highlights a broader trend within the video game industry. News of Rozenek’s vocal restoration arrived shortly after veteran voice actor Stephen Russell discussed returning to the role of Garrett for an upcoming remaster of Thief: The Dark Project. Having last voiced the master thief two decades prior in Thief: Deadly Shadows, Russell similarly had to carefully calibrate his pitch and delivery to match a character from his past, even as recording technology and equipment evolved over the years.
However, while traditional recording challenges involve an actor naturally adjusting to the passage of time, medical emergencies like Rozenek’s stroke create sudden and profound changes. Through the collaborative use of AI voice modification, CD Projekt and Jacek Rozenek have managed to preserve a beloved continuity, allowing the definitive Polish voice of Geralt of Rivia to return to the Continent without breaking the immersion of players experiencing the new chapter.
