'The Mandalorian and Grogu'

'Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu' Nicola Goode/Lucasfilm Ltd

Voicemod, a Spain-based maker of sound boards and voice-changing technology, is making audio clips from Star Wars characters available to users via a licensing deal with Disney.

The Mandalorian and Grogu are the first characters to be featured, and other characters from Marvel will also be part of the offering in the future, the company said.

The licensing arrangement allows quotes and sound effects from the Lucasfilm property to be shared by gamers and creators on platforms like Twitch. While Voicemod’s technology allows for the alteration of voices, the Disney activation will let users use and share only pre-existing sounds.

Voicemod claims a monthly active user base of 5.7 million. Users can access the Mandalorian and Grogu sound boards as stand-alone purchases for $9.99, or $7.99 if they are premium subscribers. After connecting the 20 different audio clips to the platform, they can deploy the sounds as they play games, stream or chat online, accessing them through individually designed icons. (A company-produced video shows how it works.)

In an interview with GamesBeat, Voicemod co-founder and CEO Jaime Bosch said customers “use those sounds to express an emotion, almost like an emoji. Just as you would use an emoji in the chat. They use it the same way, but on a communication via audio.”

Disney’s robust licensing business has included newer tech frontiers in recent years. Prior to current CEO Josh D’Amaro taking the helm, the company had struck a deal with OpenAI, pledging to make a $1 billion equity investment in exchange for allowing OpenAI’s Sora video platform to feature select Disney characters. That arrangement was later scrapped after OpenAI decided to shut down Sora, which had generated a firestorm of complaints over its misuse of copyrighted material.

Subscribe to Deadline

Get our Breaking News Alerts and Keep your inbox happy.

Sign Up

Source: Deadline · Dade Hayes

At a glance

Topic
Technology
Country
🇺🇸 US
Publisher language
EN
Added to Allnira