{"id":476244,"date":"2026-05-09T11:05:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T11:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/476244\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T11:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T11:05:11","slug":"darkest-dungeon-devs-wont-use-ai-to-copy-iconic-voice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/476244\/","title":{"rendered":"Darkest Dungeon Devs Won’t Use AI To Copy Iconic Voice"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s no separating Wayne June from Darkest Dungeon<\/a>. Like Logan Cunningham\u2019s work as the narrator in Supergiant Games\u2019 Bastion, every narrow victory and heart-wrenching defeat in Red Hook Studios\u2019 dark fantasy dungeon crawler is punctuated by June\u2019s grim, unwaveringly sorrow-filled voice. He passed away in January 2025, and director Chris Bourassa recently confirmed he would never use generative AI to try to resurrect his ghost.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn one of his last emails to me, Wayne gave us permission to train an AI on his voice, something he\u2019d staunchly opposed prior to the end,\u201d Bourassa wrote on the Darkest Dungeon subreddit this week<\/a> in response to fans discussing how a potential Darkest Dungeon 3 might handle the deceased actor\u2019s one-of-a-kind talents. \u201cWe\u2019d never asked to do it. I think he was trying to put the game\/team\/fans first \u2013 offer us a \u2018way forward\u2019. I declined, and we donated to his family anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cyberpunk 2077 used generative AI<\/a> to mimic the voice of the actor who played Viktor Vektor in the Polish-language version of the game after he died of cancer in 2021. \u201cDo not f*cking do that,\u201d Deus Ex voice actor Elias Toufexis said when a modder tried to swap his voice into CD Projekt Red\u2019s sci-fi RPG<\/a> using AI. Epic Games even used it to have James Earl Jones bark at players in Fortnite as Darth Vader<\/a>. Red Hook Studios is drawing a line where others haven\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would never, ever erode his incredible and timeless performances by teaching a machine to sound like him,\u201d Bourassa wrote. \u201cHis voice and delivery was *human, and I\u2019m forever grateful I got to write for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

June\u2019s voice is especially affecting in Darkest Dungeon 2<\/a>, where a roguelike adventure structure provides more space for dramatic storytelling and ambient tension. \u201cWayne\u2019s singular baritone and masterful cadence elevated everything he read. He was a consummate professional, and his love of his craft was an inspiration,\u201d Bourassa said when he passed<\/a>. \u201cHis inimitable work is woven into the very fabric of our industry in a way that cannot be forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s no separating Wayne June from Darkest Dungeon. Like Logan Cunningham\u2019s work as the narrator in Supergiant Games\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[261],"tags":[291,289,290,208623,18,19,17,82,208624],"class_list":{"0":"post-476244","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-darkest-dungeon","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-technology","16":"tag-voice-actor"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116544295813751434","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}