Microsoft integrated AI voice replica clauses into contracts offered to voice actors recording for World of Warcraft and other Blizzard games, requiring performers to grant rights over their recorded voices for potential AI use. In September 2025, French voice actress Corinne Wellong publicly refused to sign such a contract and stepped away from the role of Queen Talanji, which she had voiced for approximately seven years. The SAG-AFTRA video game performers' strike, which ran from July 26, 2024, to June 11, 2025, named Activision Productions as a party and centered on AI protections; the resulting 2025 Interactive Media Agreement established consent, transparency, and compensation requirements for use of a performer's digital voice replica.

The contract clauses at issue would allow Microsoft to use voice actors' recorded performances to generate AI voice replicas, according to the French performers' union SFA, which advised its members not to sign. Corinne Wellong, who had voiced the World of Warcraft character Queen Talanji since roughly 2018, announced in September 2025 on social media that she was stepping away from the role because Microsoft's contract did not adequately protect her against generative AI use of her voice. Players observed that WoW: Midnight credits only eight French voice actors, compared to 76 credited for the previous expansion, The War Within. Blizzard publicly stated that voice lines in Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4 that players suspected were AI-generated were not AI-generated, attributing the robotic-sounding audio to a bug with temporary placeholder audio. The 2025 SAG-AFTRA Interactive Media Agreement, ratified July 9, 2025, requires consent, transparency, and additional compensation whenever a performer's digital voice replica is created or used, and covers Activision Productions as a named signatory.