Destiny 2recently releasedThe Edge of Fate, the first expansion in the Year of Prophecy. However, fans were quick to notice that some of the characters in the expansion sounded off, including Ikora Rey, originally voiced by Gina Torres, who now sounds a lot like Savathun from The Witch Queen, who is voiced by Debra Wilson.
It turns out that Bungie was unable to record voice lines with their usual cast of voice actors during the production phase of Edge of Fate. It’s not explicitly stated, but this was likely due to the lengthy SAG-AFTRA performers' strike, which centred around protections against AI reproductions of an actor’s voice.
The result is that several characters in Edge of Fate, including Ikora, Orin and Chioma, are not voiced by their original voice actors, and occasionally, characters are completely silent.
However, with the strike resolved, Bungie is now undergoing the process of re-recording the voice lines for these characters.
Bungie Is Re-Recording Voice Lines
Inan update shared yesterday, Bungie stated, “We are happy to announce these conflicts have been resolved, and we’re actively re-recording lines for affected characters. While we do not have a specific date for when these lines will be updated, we are aiming for a future update. When we have more details, we will let you know.”
The Edge of Fate is the first expansion for Destiny 2 under the new format, which aims to have two major expansions a year rather than four seasons. The next expansion is called Renegades and is supposed to be heavily influenced by Star Wars, despite not being a direct crossover.
The SAG-AFTRA strike concluded on June 18, with the union claiming that necessary guardrails against the use of artificial intelligence to recreate actors' voices have been put in place to protect performers.
Whether this agreement is robust enough to resist future attempts to exploit voice actors' labour remains to be seen.
Destiny 2’s The Edge of Fate expansion is currently live for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and PC.
