Witcher - Will They Re-Record Voice Actors?

[Silver]

Eurogamer has asked the question of Doug Cockle, voice of the Witcher, about whether or not the voice acting for the Witcher 1 Remake will be recast.

Cockle, remember, is the voice of Geralt in every main Witcher game. It's him you hear in The Witcher 1. So if CDPR wants to re-record or expand that performance, it's Cockle they will need to call.

"I'd be there in an instant," Cockle tells me, if CDPR did phone, but it hasn't rung yet.

"I know as much as you do about this at the moment," he says. "All I know is that CD Projekt Red has announced that they're going to remake Witcher 1 in Unreal [Engine] 5, and that's what I know. So I don't know if they're going to bring me back in to do re-recording of the dialogue, I don't know if they're going to use dialogue from Witcher 1 as it exists. I don't know."

But the more we talk about remake, and what things were like when he recorded The Witcher 1, the more apparent it becomes how much things have moved on since then. And the more convinced I am that re-recording the performances is precisely what CDPR will do.

There are a few reasons why.

[...]

More information.

 

[ChaosTheory]

That would be a lot of f'ing around when they could just work on a new installment. The first game wasn't that good.

 

[Couchpotato]

That would be a lot of f'ing around when they could just work on a new installment. The first game wasn't that good.

So do you feel the same about the Gothic remake? Anyway it's a remake not a remaster and that means new audio. I'm sure they can get the Witcher 3 voice actors back.

Well minus the few that aren't alive anymore.

As for making a new game have you been living under a Rock? CDPR already announced Witcher 4 , and mentioned after a few months back two more games in a new trilogy.

CD Projekt RED announces three new Witcher games, new Cyberpunk 2077 game, and new IP ‘Hadar’

CD Projekt RED has announced five new projects: a new Witcher game codenamed “Sirius” by The Molasses Flood, new Witcher trilogy by CD Projekt RED, new Witcher game codenamed “Can…

www.gematsu.com

You might ask how well they are opening two more studios in Canada and the US.

Also the remake is being done by a different studio.

Who is the studio behind The Witcher remake

Fool’s Theory has its roots in CD Projekt: who is the studio behind The Witcher remake | Game World Observer

CD Projekt has announced the remake of the first Witcher game, as the trend to reimagine popular franchises continues. The project is being built with Unreal Engine 5 by Polish studio Fool’s Theory.

gameworldobserver.com

• Founded in 2015, Fool’s Theory is run by CEO Jakub Rokosz. He has worked at CD Projekt RED for five years as a senior quest designer on The Witcher 2 and The Witcher 3.
• The studio’s design director, Karolina Kuzia-Rokosz, is also a CDPR veteran. She previously worked at the company for more than four years as a QA tester and quest designer .
• Other former CD Projekt developers include living world lead Przemysław Tarczyński and lead quest designer Katarzyna Władyka. They contributed to the development of The Witcher 3 and/or Cyberpunk 2077.
• Fool’s Theory initially focused on outsourcing development, taking part in the making of games such as Outriders, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, and Baldur’s Gate III. It also helped develop open-world isometric stealth RPG Seven: The Days Long Gone.
• The studio eventually shifted to in-house development of its own projects. In addition to The Witcher remake, Fool’s Theory is now working on Vitriol, an esoteric narrative-driven RPG.
• The latter will be published by 11 bit studios, which acquired a 40% stake in the Polish studio for up to $1.49 million earlier this year.

 

[JDR13]

I will definitely be disappointed if they don't get Doug Cockle for Geralt. The other characters aren't nearly as important.

 

[JFarrell71]

That would be a lot of f'ing around when they could just work on a new installment. The first game wasn't that good.

Well, yes, but in my mind putting a new coat of paint on this very old game without updating important elements like the script and the voice acting is even more pointless.

Regardless, this mini project isn't preventing them or stalling them from working on a new installment. This is just a low effort way of generating some new revenue, like 95% of remasters are.

 

[JDR13]

Regardless, this mini project isn't preventing them or stalling them from working on a new installment. This is just a low effort way of generating some new revenue, like 95% of remasters are.

Do you have any evidence that it's going to be a low-effort project or are you just assuming that?

 

[Ripper]

Could also be a good way of finding their way around the new engine, and re-implementing things in Unreal, on a relatively small project. That would make sense to me.

 

[JFarrell71]

Could also be a good way of finding their way around the new engine, and re-implementing things in Unreal, on a relatively small project. That would make sense to me.

True, though that would kind of imply that the Witcher 1 project would delay work on a new installment because the coders picking up experience working in Unreal would have to be the same coders on each project for that to make sense.

 

[Ripper]

Could be that there is a ton of pre-production, writing, design, and so on to be done for the next big installment.

Even if there's overlap on the coding side, I could still see the cooperation and learning between the teams being very valuable. And when the remake is done, you've got a whole lot of trained reinforcements to join the Witcher 4 guys.

 

[screeg]

They're a great studio, but I can't help but feel this kind of massive expansion will screw everything up.
Sometimes the best studios are simply destroyed by their own success and subsequent overreach.

 

[ChaosTheory]

So do you feel the same about the Gothic remake? Anyway it's a remake not a remaster and that means new audio. I'm sure they can get the Witcher 3 voice actors back.

Well minus the few that aren't alive anymore.

As for making a new game have you been living under a Rock? CDPR already announced Witcher 4 , and mentioned after a few months back two more games in a new trilogy.

CD Projekt RED announces three new Witcher games, new Cyberpunk 2077 game, and new IP ‘Hadar’

CD Projekt RED has announced five new projects: a new Witcher game codenamed “Sirius” by The Molasses Flood, new Witcher trilogy by CD Projekt RED, new Witcher game codenamed “Can…

www.gematsu.com

You might ask how well they are opening two more studios in Canada and the US.

Also the remake is being done by a different studio.

Who is the studio behind The Witcher remake

Fool’s Theory has its roots in CD Projekt: who is the studio behind The Witcher remake | Game World Observer

CD Projekt has announced the remake of the first Witcher game, as the trend to reimagine popular franchises continues. The project is being built with Unreal Engine 5 by Polish studio Fool’s Theory.

gameworldobserver.com

I'm aware they're making several new games, which again forces me to ask how they have time for this? I understand that visually "remastering" older games to milk money is a thing now. But dragging old voice actors back to repeat the same lines sounds like f'ing around to me. If they have time for this, it potentially suggests their other projects are much further off than we think and they're trying to keep the team busy. There's nothing wrong with that, I just believe (my opinion) the original Witcher game wasn't really good enough to justify a re-release with that kind of effort.

 

[JDR13]

I'm aware they're making several new games, which again forces me to ask how they have time for this? I understand that visually "remastering" older games to milk money is a thing now. But dragging old voice actors back to repeat the same lines sounds like f'ing around to me. If they have time for this, it potentially suggests their other projects are much further off than we think and they're trying to keep the team busy. There's nothing wrong with that, I just believe (my opinion) the original Witcher game wasn't really good enough to justify a re-release with that kind of effort.

Where do you get the idea that they're just remastering it to milk money? It's a remake not a remaster.

I definitely think the original was good enough to justify a modern remake. Plus there are a lot of fans of the IP who never played TW1 because it was only on PC.

 

[henriquejr]

Where do you get the idea that they're just remastering it to milk money? It's a remake not a remaster.

I definitely think the original was good enough to justify a modern remake. Plus there are a lot of fans of the IP who never played TW1 because it was only on PC.

Not my case. I have it on PC, and I started to play it twice already. I gave it up just because the combat plain sucks. Jesus Christ, the combat is horribly done here.

I always swear to myself that I will return to TW1, endure its combat system, and play it until the end. But then I remember those famous GOT words when someone was asked the only one thing we say to Death: "not today".

 

[Couchpotato]

One thing I find odd on most game sites is gamer's have no clue what is a remaster or a remake. They are not the same but I roll my eyes when comments say they are.

What's the difference between a remake and a remaster? A remake is a recreation or realization. A remaster is taking something from the past which already exists, and altering it. One is a brand new re-imagining, the other is taking the same thing as it is and making it look/sound better.

This is a remake which means the game is being remade from scratch and not using old files. Now if it was a remaster it would be the same game just with a new paint job.

 

[JDR13]

Not my case. I have it on PC, and I started to play it twice already. I gave it up just because the combat plain sucks. Jesus Christ, the combat is horribly done here.

I always swear to myself that I will return to TW1, endure its combat system, and play it until the end. But then I remember those famous GOT words when someone was asked the only one thing we say to Death: "not today".

A lot of people don't like the combat, but that only reinforces why a remake isn't a bad idea. They have an opportunity to redo it in a way that it will appeal to more gamers.

 

[Couchpotato]

Add one more who hated the active time combo combat. Though CDPR did a good job given the engine. The remake's combat will probably be action based like the sequels.

 

[JDR13]

Yeah, I think that's probably stating the obvious. They're not going to reuse the same system from the original. I didn't mind it too much myself, but the system in TW2 was definitely an improvement.

 

[LaHolt]

The first game was quite good actually, particularly the setting and the story, which were a very mature story/setting than the generic spelunking D&D good vs evil affair of the day.

I had no issue with the combo system nor the overhead perspective, but I don't expect those will make a return. In fact I do think enough time has passed that a remake makes sense, given where the franchise is.

 

[mercy]

I couldn't care less about stupid CD-Red and their botched "games", so the most amazing news for me is

On September 9, Netflix finally wrapped filming on The Witcher’s anticipated third season, completing a journey that began way back in March.

Cautiously optimistic too about that weird ‘The Witcher: Blood Origin’ [?] prequel-thingie, since Kung-fu Granma is starring in it..