Tencent Taps Voicemod to Give Video Game Players Custom Voices

Augmented audio startup Voicemod has struck a deal with Chinese tech giant Tencent to provide real-time voice filters for people conversing while playing games hosted by Tencent Cloud. Voicemod will augment Tencent Cloud’s Game Multimedia Engine (GME) with custom voices, enabling players to speak normally while sounding like a completely different person or character during live conversations or in voice messages. The partnership will also supply Tencent Cloud game developers with an SDK allowing them to incorporate the custom voice into future gameplay on any platform.

Voicemod Tencent

Voicemod first unveiled its real-time voice conversion tool in June with a catalog of voice options, including three variations of a Morgan Freeman sound-alike. The software leverages synthetic voice generation and speech-to-speech translation to replicate a user’s speech as though it came from a different, if virtual, throat. The speed, intonation, and emotional force don’t change, but the AI can manipulate everything else, including accent, gender, and other identifying factors. Voicemod has delivered 90 preset sound templates to Tencent Cloud to begin with. The number of potential voices skyrockets when considering how players can employ Voicemod’s Voicelab to customize the voice template and make it their own. The player can also adjust the pitch as they speak without reducing quality using the Voice Enhancer tool, a relative of Voicemod’s PowerPitch technology for streamlining necessary changes

“The quality of immersion in gaming has become more and more important among players, especially with the advent of the virtual world, where they can be anyone they can be,” Tencent Cloud International senior vice president Poshu Yeung said. “Through Tencent Cloud’s GME, which is a high-quality voice communication service trusted by companies and clients all around the world, and our collaboration with Voicemod, the newly launched real-time voice-changing chat solution has made it even more immersive for gamers and helps them become a truly integral part of the fantastic worlds and scenarios they are in.”

Tencent’s game portfolio includes some of the most popular online games in the world including PUBG, League of Legends, and Apex legends Mobile. It’s also the partner for the Chinese editions of some of the other most-played games developed by other studios. Tencent Cloud claims players employ its GME to talk to each other for a billion minutes of conversation across 200 countries. Voicemod will have immediate access to a potentially enormous new customer base as a result of the deal.

“The newly introduced real-time voice-changing chat solution in collaboration with Tencent Cloud is a significant development for game developers. Not only does it help enhance player immersion and strengthen gaming styles, it also assists in driving game revenue growth and player interaction frequency. Voicemod CEO Jaime Bosch said. “This new solution allows game developers to provide their players with more interactions, entertainment, and communication, as well as security and privacy, as it reduces the risk of personal and real voice leakage.”

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