Destiny 2: Heresy is set to launch today (February 4), concluding the Light and Darkness Saga and flinging players into the Dreadnought as part of its 3-player game mode, The Nether.
One thing it won't have a lot of however, is voiced dialogue. As part of the January 30 This Week in Destiny blog post on the Bungie website, the community team tempered expectations around voice lines amidst the continuing SAG-AFTRA strike.
"With this being our final epilogue entry for the Light and Darkness Saga, our teams have been taking great care to deliver delightful narrative beats and story content for players to enjoy," the blog post read. "Due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, you may notice certain voice lines being silent in-game. However, we have enabled subtitles by default for this release to ensure players do not miss any narrative content." It's unclear exactly which characters will be voiceless right now, though we do know based on last week's livestream that Sloane is one of them.
- Destiny 2's new episode hits next week, sending players back into the giant, haunted spaceship where the first game had its finest moments
- League of Legends hit by SAG-AFTRA union action as Riot delays English VO to 'respect the ongoing strike' over AI, though voice actors think it could be doing more to help
Bungie says that activities affected by the missing voice lines will display a warning, and points folk to the multitude of closed captioning customisation options present in the game that can be tweaked to each player's liking. There's no word on whether Bungie'll go back and patch the voice lines in post if things come to a resolution, nor did it offer any further comments on the strike.
Destiny 2 isn't the only game feeling the impact right now, mind. The SAG-AFTRA strike has been in full swing since July last year, with videogame voice actors wanting better protection against the rising use of AI, including "fair compensation and the right of informed consent for the AI use of their faces, voices, and bodies." In October, the union reported that 120 games from 49 different companies had signed the agreement, though an updated figure hasn't been provided since.
Other games we've seen hit by the action include League of Legends, with Riot delaying the English voiceover, a decision which came with some scathing criticisms from some voice actors. Hideo Kojima also revealed that his upcoming projects OD and Physint have run into a few hiccups thanks to the strike, though Death Stranding 2 is in the clear. Activision, meanwhile, went the recast route after a handful of actors were replaced and their credits removed in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.
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