CD Projekt used AI to recreate the voice of Miłogost Reczek, a Polish voice actor who died in 2021, for Cyberpunk 2077's new Polish DLC, after asking his family
Gamemaker says it consulted with family of the late Miłogost Reczek — Polish video game developer CD Projekt SA …
Context & Ripple Effects
CD Projekt's use of a recreated performance comes after Cyberpunk 2077's troubled production and launch were tied in coverage to planning and technical failures. The company is now making a narrowly targeted production choice for a title whose later recovery became a central part of its story.
The case also lands amid mounting concern that performers are being asked to grant synthetic-voice rights that could displace future work, as reported in the growing push for voice-rights waivers. CD Projekt's consultation with Reczek's family makes consent—not merely technical capability—the salient distinction here.
First-order effects
- CD Projekt can preserve Reczek's established Polish-language character performance in the new DLC without recasting the role; his family is directly involved in that decision.
- The move gives the studio a public, consent-based example of AI voice recreation in a commercial game, while making the treatment of a deceased performer's voice part of the product's reception.
Second-order effects
- Other game studios seeking continuity in localized casts will face stronger pressure to obtain clear permissions from performers or estates, rather than treating recorded dialogue as an unrestricted asset.
- Voice actors and their representatives gain a concrete game-industry precedent in negotiations over whether synthetic use is permitted, compensated, and limited to a particular project.
Third-order effects
- If consent-led recreations become routine, voice rights are likely to be managed more explicitly as licensable, project-specific rights across games and other media, rather than as an implicit byproduct of a recording session.
- The dividing line between an approved continuation of a performance and replacement of living workers will become more consequential for industry standards; prior coverage of expanding synthetic-voice contract demands suggests that distinction is already under pressure.
The trend: Generative voice technology is pushing entertainment companies to turn performer consent, estate approval, and scope of use into core production and rights-management questions.