Picture the job. You have voiced the same character for nearly two decades. A stroke takes your ability to speak. Years later you are back at the microphone, putting in hours of training every day just to get through a recording session. Then the studio tells you your voice has changed, and asks whether it can use AI to make the new lines sound like the old ones. I expected to hate that sentence. After reading what CD Projekt Red and Jacek Rozenek have actually said, I don’t, and below I show my work, including the parts nobody has answered yet.
What CD Projekt Red actually said
The news came out of an interview CD Projekt Red gave to Game File, which VGC reported on Nov. 11 and Nintendo Life followed on Nov. 12. The studio worked with AI company Respeecher on Geralt’s Polish dialogue for Songs of the Past, the third expansion for The Witcher 3. The goal was to make the new lines sound closer to Rozenek’s performance in the original game. He recorded the lines himself, and the AI work happened afterward.
The Story, at a Glance
- What changed — Geralt’s Polish lines in Songs of the Past were processed with Respeecher so they sound closer to Jacek Rozenek’s earlier voice.
- Why — Rozenek had a stroke in 2019. According to Nintendo Life, his voice became lower and gruffer, and the studio worried that mixing old and new lines would feel jarring.
- Consent — VGC reports that Rozenek agreed to the process. The studio says it only considered AI because of his health.
- English version — Doug Cockle returns as Geralt in English, per Nintendo Life.
- Release — 2027. No exact date and no price have been announced.
The studio’s own framing is worth quoting. Localization lead Mikołaj Szwed said he thinks this is “one of those ways where you can use AI ethically, with consent,” and to do something good. That is a studio making an argument, not a ruling, and I’ll test it below instead of taking it on faith.
The road to this microphone
The timeline matters here, because it shows how much work sits behind a single Geralt line. Everything below comes from the sources listed at the bottom.
Rozenek voices Geralt in the original The Witcher, and keeps the role through the sequels and The Witcher 3 and its two expansions.
He has a stroke. Gamepressure reported at the time that he lost the ability to speak and had near-total paralysis on the right side of his body.
He returns to voice acting, which VGC says took hours of training each day. After recording for the next-gen update he said, “I was so exhausted after this recording.”
Songs of the Past is shown at Gamescom Opening Night Live, with Doug Cockle returning for the English voice.
The Respeecher work is reported from CD Projekt Red’s interview with Game File.
I keep coming back to the 2022 line. This is an actor who rebuilt his ability to speak and then got back to work on the role he has voiced since 2007. Whatever you think of AI, any version of this story that treats him as a problem to be engineered around misses the point. He is the reason the project exists in this form.
What the AI does, as far as anyone has said
This is the part most headlines blurred. “AI voice” can mean a synthetic voice reading a script with no actor involved. That is not what has been reported here. According to VGC, Rozenek recorded his new lines as usual, and Respeecher then matched them to his earlier voice, using tools trained on his previous voice work. Szwed put it this way: “They created an algorithm of his voice, based on his lines.”
So the timing, the emotion and the acting choices come from him. What the technology adjusts is the sound of his voice. CD Projekt Red hasn’t published technical details, so I’m describing the reported setup, not Respeecher’s internals, and I can’t tell you whether every line goes through it.
Rozenek’s own words are the most important evidence in the story. He said, “The point is that this voice should be as close as possible to my voice from 12 years ago,” and added that he has “great trust” in the creators of the game. Read that closely. He isn’t asking to be replaced. He is asking for the Geralt Polish players grew up with to sound like Geralt, and he is the one doing the performing.
My four-question test, applied to three cases
I don’t think “AI voices: good or bad?” is a useful question, because the cases are too different. So I use four questions, and I scored three real cases against them using only what’s been reported. The ratings are mine, not an industry standard.
| Case | Agreed? | Performance theirs? | Real reason? | Said out loud? | My rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Geralt in Polish, Songs of the Past (2026) | Agreed?Yes, per VGC | Performance theirs?Yes. He recorded the lines | Real reason?Yes. Stroke changed his voice | Said out loud?Yes, in an interview | My ratingPass |
| Viktor Vektor, Cyberpunk 2077 (2023) | Agreed?Yes. The late actor’s family agreed | Performance theirs?Not his. PC Gamer says a voice actor likely recorded the new lines | Real reason?Yes. Miłogost Reczek died in 2021 | Said out loud?Yes. Studio staff discussed it | My ratingPass, with a caveat |
| Geralt in English, fan mod (2021) | Agreed?Not stated in coverage | Performance theirs?No. New lines were generated, then spliced with originals | Real reason?None stated | Said out loud?No studio statement reported | My ratingFails on what’s reported |
The first row is the cleanest result I’ve seen on this test. The actor is alive, involved, consenting and doing the acting. The reason is medical, not financial. The studio talked about it in public instead of letting players find out from a datamine. The Cyberpunk 2077 row passes too, but notice the caveat: the new performance was likely given by someone else, per PC Gamer, which is a bigger step than adjusting the sound of the original actor’s own recording. I think the family’s agreement and the tribute framing justify it. I also think it’s closer to the line.
The third row is there to show why the test exists. The 2021 mod used a paid AI service to generate new Geralt dialogue in Doug Cockle’s voice. GamesRadar noted at the time that the results were scarily accurate, and that nothing in its report said Cockle had been involved or consented. I can’t say what arrangements existed beyond that, and I’m not accusing anyone. I’m only noting that when consent isn’t established, I can’t pass it, no matter how good it sounds.
One warning about my own test: it is easy to approve of the case with a sympathetic story. A test earns its keep when the story is less moving. If an actor says no, I want the answer to stay no even when the audio is flawless.
Who voices Geralt in each language
A lot of searches I expect for this story are really about who is voicing Geralt in Songs of the Past. Here is what has been reported so far, language by language.
| Language | Voice | What’s reported |
|---|---|---|
| English | VoiceDoug Cockle | What’s reportedReturns for the expansion. No AI is reported in the English version |
| Polish | VoiceJacek Rozenek | What’s reportedNew lines processed with Respeecher to match his earlier voice |
| Russian | VoiceNo voice-over | What’s reportedText is fully translated. The studio linked the change to its March 2022 decision to stop working with Russian and Belarusian tax residents |
So no, the AI isn’t replacing the English Geralt. Cockle is back. This is a Polish-language story, and I think that’s why it deserves more care than a one-line “Witcher uses AI” headline can give it.
What we still don’t know
I’d be doing you a disservice if I stopped at “passes.” Here is what the published coverage I read does not say. Nintendo Life explicitly notes several of these gaps.
- The terms. Nothing has been reported on payment or contract terms for Rozenek.
- The voice model. We don’t know whether the original recordings or the trained model are kept, locked to this project or deleted afterward.
- The scope. It isn’t clear whether his agreement covers only Songs of the Past or other Geralt work too.
- Unions. No union involvement is mentioned in what I read.
- In-game disclosure. It’s unknown whether players will see a credit or note about the AI work in the game itself.
- The release. Songs of the Past is a 2027 game with no date and no price so far, so nobody has heard the final result.
None of these gaps changes my read on the facts that are public. But they are exactly the questions I would want answered before calling this a model for the rest of the industry instead of a good decision by one studio.
My five rules for AI voices
These are mine, not CD Projekt Red’s and not an industry standard. They are what I would want any studio to follow, and this story meets the first four as far as reporting goes.
Ask first, and get a yes you can show
The actor, or the family if the actor has died, agrees before the work starts, not after the backlash.
Keep the human performance
Use AI to adjust a sound, not to invent an acting choice the actor never made.
Have a reason that isn’t a budget line
Illness, loss or age can be a reason. “It’s cheaper” cannot carry this on its own.
Say it out loud
Disclose it in interviews, and ideally in the credits, so players aren’t left to find out.
Limit what happens to the voice model afterward
The agreement should say where the model lives and what it can be used for. This is the rule I can’t yet check against any public detail.
Quick answers
Is The Witcher 3’s new expansion using AI for Geralt’s voice?
In Polish, yes. CD Projekt Red worked with Respeecher to make Jacek Rozenek’s new lines sound closer to his earlier voice. The English version stars Doug Cockle, and no AI work has been reported for it.
Why did CD Projekt Red use AI on Geralt’s Polish voice?
Rozenek had a stroke in 2019, and his voice is now lower and gruffer than it was in the base game, according to Nintendo Life. The studio worried that old and new lines would sound jarring together. It says it considered AI only because of his health.
Did Jacek Rozenek agree to this?
Yes, according to VGC. He said the point is for the voice to be as close as possible to his voice from 12 years ago, and that he trusts the game’s creators.
Is Doug Cockle being replaced by AI?
No. Nintendo Life and GamesRadar both report that Cockle returns as the English voice of Geralt in Songs of the Past.
When does Songs of the Past come out?
It’s scheduled for 2027. CD Projekt Red hasn’t announced an exact date or a price. Reported platforms are PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch 2.
Has CD Projekt Red used Respeecher before?
Yes. In 2023, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty used it for Viktor Vektor, after the original Polish actor, Miłogost Reczek, died in December 2021. The studio said his family supported the decision.
On everything that has been reported, this is the strongest case for an AI voice I’ve seen from a major studio: the actor agreed, the performance is his, the reason is medical and the studio talked about it openly. I’d still want to see the terms, the fate of the voice model and an in-game credit. If those answers are as good as the first ones, I’d call it a template. Until then, I’d call it a good decision made by people who seem to have asked the right person first.
