Again, George Lucas's point is proven: Hollywood doesn't care about anything.  Just money.
by Louis Bedigian

 

Games may be losing their voice - Xbox News at GameSpot

It's a joke that actors would expect royalties from games.  We don't buy games because of the actors.  We might rent a movie because of it.  We might go to the theater because of a specific director, actor or screenwriter.  But when it comes to games, we first decide (1) does it look fun (2) is it a sequel to a game we loved (3) if it's not a sequel, who's making it?  If it's from Capcom, Namco, Konami, Rockstar, Activision, Bungie, etc. gamers are more willing to jump on board.

But we don't -- and will not -- buy a game because Sean Connery's voice is in it.  If it comes to the point where big actors expect royalties, I say scrap 'em altogether.  Their performances usually suck anyway.  There are cheaper alternatives.  There's a lot of undiscovered talent out there.  The hard part is finding it.

In time this could actually be a good thing.  Look at what's happening with composers.  First the game industry hired a bunch of no-name people, people who had never even worked on a video game, a movie, or anything at all.  Some of these people turned out to be extremely talented.  Now, two decades later, a select few are getting their chance at scoring major motion pictures.  That's the ultimate dream for game composers -- to be acknowledged not only by gamers, but also by Hollywood for creating art.

For music the game industry got lucky.  The road to acquiring talented voice actors will be much more difficult.  Everyone and their brother, their sister, their sister's friend, and probably their friend's friend knows someone who wants to be an actor.  As a writer I like to joke that anyone can act -- it's the script that makes the movie.  The truth is a brilliant script will seem like crap if your actors don't convey the proper emotion (as witnessed in the original version of Resident Evil).

Obtaining the right voices won't be quite as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack, but it might feel that way.  If you search Hollywood you'll discover that there is a far greater number of respectable actors than there are respectable writers and directors.  You will also find that there are hundreds of thousands of people out there who think they can act but can't.  That's the nature of our world and our society.  Acting is the most desired profession in the entertainment industry, therefore more people strive to become actors than anything else.

Another obstacle that the game industry faces is time.  It's not 1980 anymore.  Our sound processors are advanced.  Our games are looking more and more photo-realistic.  Budgets continue to grow.  Marketing guys continue to have a greater influence on how and when games are made.  The game industry needs talented voice actors now.  They don't have much time to start searching, not when a game is half-way complete and the voices haven't been recorded yet.  Nothing would be more shameful than to delay a game because the voices weren't completed in time.

Thus, if Hollywood demands it, some developers will give in -- for a while.  It's more appealing to play a James Bond game that stars one of the real James Bond actors, but its sales figures can't compare to Halo 2.  Gran Turismo 4, a racer that looks to become Sony's biggest game yet, doesn't need voice-overs to be fun.

Perhaps that is the most important message of all.  As much as we'd like our games to be more like the movies we love, that's not how video games started.  Is that really the way we want them to end up?

--Louis

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