Brando's voice will appear in The Godfather, confirms EA

Electronic Arts has clarified the role of the late, great Marlon Brando in its Godfather game, which recently slipped to early 2006 from its originally announced holiday season launch window.

The publisher had previously said that the decision over whether or not to include voice recordings made before his death had yet to be made. Reports that Brando had to breathe using an oxygen tanks during the session had cast doubt on their quality.

However, EA's head of corporate communications Tammy Schachter says Brando's voice will be present in the game, but perhaps not all of his character Don Corleone's lines will be authentic Brando performances.

"Typically we require multiple sessions with an actor and we were not able to record his complete dialogue before his passing," 1UP reports Schachter as saying. "But, fans of Brando and the Godfather will definitely get to hear his voice in the game."

Actors Robert Duvall and James Caan have already recorded dialogue for the game, reprising their roles from the film series, although Al Pacino has declined to be involved so his likeness and voice will not feature.

Another member of the Godfather film dynasty who will not be featuring is of course director Francis Ford Coppola, who infamously denounced the game earlier this year as "a misuse of film".

"They use the characters everyone knows, and they hire those actors to be there, and only to introduce minor characters," he continued. "And then for the next hour they shoot and kill each other," he said.

The current-generation versions of The Godfather game recently slipped into EA's fourth fiscal quarter (the first three months of 2006) due to quality issues, with next-generation console versions due to follow in fiscal 2007, which means April 2006 or later.