For quite some time now, several NPCs and player characters of Guild Wars 2 have been without any spoken dialogue across Janthir Wilds as a result of the SAG-AFTRA voice actors strike, which itself was the result of some game companies refusing to bargain in good faith with workers on topics like AI. Now that the strike resulted in a new contract agreement that was recently ratified, ArenaNet reports that voice work has resumed and missing voice lines are on the way.
The studio confirmed that it was working with its voice cast since last month when the strike was called off and projects missing VO to come back in a patch that’s currently scheduled for Tuesday, August 19th. This will bring back a wide assortment of character voices and fill in missing speaking sections for chapters 11 through 19 of the Janthir Wilds post-release story segments as well as several side missions.
The patch is also promising some new achievements for playing through the story chapters that have had voiceover added, so if you’re the sort of person who’s eager to replay past content and hear your female Charr growl through her lines again, then there’s a little added incentive. Above and beyond just getting English VO back again, anyway.