While you’re playing your games, do you ever listen to them? Ever since the introduction of electronic sound communication we have incorporated the element into our daily lives.
We don’t have to pick up a paper to connect, why else would radio be so popular? We fill the space in our lives so often with a type of noise. From your favorite cartoon characters to radio personalities, voice talent has been often taken for granted by the consumer.
What would our world be like without the people that became our Kermit the Frog’s and our Tony the Tiger’s. For me, Spyro the Dragon and Sonic the Hedgehog were the games I played with my mother.
Those voices carry the weight of the meanings of their games. Some might think that the field of voice acting is a lucrative one. This is not usually the case. The standard rate for a 4-hour voice session is about $825.
Now surely, that’s good money—but is it enough? How many gigs are there for a voice talent? That varies. If you have such a strong addiction to gaming and to cartoons as I do, you can notice your staple voice talents.
That flat rate negotiating is what has recently driven a wedge among the talent and the industry that employs it.
When you voice the character for the world’s most popular game, grossing millions of copies—and walk away with a few thousand, I wouldn’t necessarily be too happy either.
This conflict has resulted in many voice talents arguing for an additional bonus per 2 million copies sold of a game. This bonus caps at 8 million copies. Negotiations have yet to budge on this.
One lawyer for the Gaming Industry contends that the voice talent is responsible for one tenth of one percent of the work that goes into producing the game, so paying them anything higher would just cause more problems for the industry.
The American voice talent pool is not one that’s incredibly broad. I mean, “Family Guy” is essentially just Seth McFarlane, Seth Green, Patrick Warburton and Alex Borstein. That’s the show.
It’s quite the interesting show going on between the union and the gaming industry. Vocal talents are usually championed outside of games, look at how many multi-millionaire singer/songwriters there are.
To the gaming industry it seems these voice talents are just replaceable. I can tell you that their talent is not to be underrated.
I’ve waited what, 11 years or so for “Kingdom Hearts III” to happen. I’m not convinced it ever truly will come out, but I can tell you that what made me a giant fan of the series and what encouraged my repeated economic investment were the characters.
The story is not told through the plot alone. The main characters Sora and particularly Roxas’ and Axel’s voice actors solidified the game into my list of favorites. I even love the wonky voice acting in my favorite Wii title, “Xenoblade.”
Voice talent has a tremendous impact. If your game could gain such a status as the top sellers by using Gilbert Gottfried and you could pay him bus fair to do it, you would have. That’s all the industry is saying now in their rhetoric.
I’ve met many, many voice actors from just about every type of medium over the years. The majority of them are hardworking people who aren’t out there trying to rip-off companies for a few extra dollars.
I want the voices that shaped parts of my childhood and continue to create such a wonderful hobby for people of all ages to be paid enough to continue to share their gifts while having decent financial security. I don’t think it needs to be overboard, but I don’t think some sort of resolution cannot be met.
Barton Kleen
Executive Editor