Will AI Really Replace Actors in Video Games?
March 25 2025, Published 3:00 a.m. ET
Many of the world’s biggest video game development studios have used the voices of famous Hollywood actors and actresses for various reasons for many years, but mainly to add authenticity and familiarity and make the games more immersive, appealing, and engaging.
The other voices that Hollywood actors don’t provide are from voice actors who specialise in lending their voices to video game characters. The question being asked here is, will AI one day replace actors in video games? Let’s dive straight in to find out.
Will artificial intelligence replace voice actors in video games?
There is a very real possibility that AI-powered tools could one day replace video game voice actors, whether they are famous Hollywood stars or not. Some people in this industry are worried that they may no longer be needed because video game studios that make games could turn to using AI voices instead of human voices.
Even long after famous Hollywood actors have passed away, the technology could be used to recreate their voices, provided that the actor or actress has sold the rights to that studio so it can use their voice for one or more of their characters.
AI voices are already being used in the gaming industry, but whether voice actors will no longer be required remains to be seen.
The same thing could happen in the iGaming industry. For example, the friendly and professionally trained human being dealers/croupiers found in online casino live dealer settings are still human in 2025, but over the coming years, the dealers could be replaced with AI dealers. We will just have to wait and see what happens.
Which famous Hollywood stars have appeared in video games?
Over the past two or three decades, many of Hollywood’s biggest stars have been voice actors for some of the gaming industry’s most iconic titles, some of which you may already be familiar with by now.
The most famous Hollywood actors and actresses who have been employed as voice actors are, in no particular order of importance, the following:
Keifer Sutherland
Norman Reedus
Keanu Reeves
Kristen Bell
Mark Hamill
Kevin Spacey
Leba Heady
Susan Sarandon
Mads Mikkelsen
Nicolas Cage
Others include J.K. Simmons, Jason Isaacs, Idris Elba, Angela Basset, Martin Sheen, Charles Dance, Liam Neeson, Ron Perlman, and Malcolm McDowell, to name just a few.
That’s not forgetting to mention Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Danny Trejo, Burt Reynolds, David Arquette, Rami Malek, Hayden Panettiere, Peter Stormare, Alijah Wood, and countless others. The list goes on.
Which famous video games have they appeared in?
The voices of these famous Hollywood actors have been heard in games like the entire ‘Dishonored’ series, Death Stranding, God of War: Ragnarok, Baldur’s Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Horizon: Forbidden West, and Alan Wake 2.
You can also hear their voices in various other hit titles, such as The Last of Us Part 2, Metal Gear Sold 5: The Phantom Pain, God of War, Batman: Arkham Series, Mass Effect [2 and 3], The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and Fall out 3, plus many other famous video games.
Some of the actors names that you may not be so familiar with who do a lot of voice acting work for video games are Martin Scher, John Mandrelli, Sandra Espinoza, Elizabeth Dean, Nicholas Conteras, Elizabeth Seda, Patrick Pedraza, and Austin Moreno, to name a few.
Final thoughts
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Voice actors are here to stay for the time being, but if artificial intelligence technology becomes cheap enough and viable for video game studios to use instead of human voice actors, then it will be bad news for this niche industry.
However, for now, voice actors have nothing to worry about. There are no plans just yet to completely stop using them in favour of AI voices.
