BigKid.com.au

Well, I am not shedding tears for actors or VO people.
Having worked with them in the past, I know they are paid very well for what may only be a few hours work. If people on the development team who work hard for a year or more on a project don’t get royalties, I don’t see why a voice-over artiste should automatically get them. (unless a devco or publisher really want a big-name actor who commands that sort of back-end deal just to agree, or of course their likenesses are used). Contracts are usually ‘buyouts’which means they get paid one and that’s it. Its the same for session musicians. Of course, there are also limits on how many characters someone may perform (not many) before their fee increases. A lot of games sound like there are only two people doing all of the voices but that’s usually just bad casting.

I definitely agree actors should recieve residuals for appearing in movies and television series as these have multiple lives (cinema, DVD, pay-tv, free to air). Games are rarely available to buy for more than a few years after the system they were released for becomes obsolete.

In my view, linking this to EA_Spouse undermines the value of that plea.

I believe if the movie has a game tie in, that is the only time the actor should be able to claim any residual.

But that is something that needs to be established in their original film contracts, not something the game co should have to worry about.

For that company, they’ve paid licensing fees to make the game, and are going to be paying some of the producers profits back to the studio.

Yeah. So you’re a half talented actor cast in a Scifi epic in a galaxy far far away, you have toy rights, and a residual from the game. But that is part of the percentage that is paid to the studio to later split between the actors.

On top of that. VO is not the selling point for many games (unless it is based on a movie). Sure it might be cool to recognise a game. The design and everything else usually create a successfull game. But the residuals, are then left to the individual gaming co’s to split. Which is fair enough, they should know how much they need to pay to keep their best game makers.

On that note. The latest issue of EDGE has an amazing spread on “Godfather” and I for taking the liberty of using a facial likeness of an actor, I really hope those actors get some money. It is their integrity that is also under scrutiny. According to Publishing law in this country at least.

I’ve noted Steve McQueen’s estate permission in the game “The Great Escape” whether it was necessary, I don’t know, but it was good to see. If they make a Magnificent Seven Game, I’d like to see something similar.

But this is in the case of a game based on a film.

The sooner Text To Speech engines are improved, the sooner there will be no voice acting in games.

The only thing I think they have a right to charge for, is additional sku’s that are not mentioned in their original contracts.