Game Voice Actors Reject Contract Due to Low Pay

[Greg Tito]

Game Voice Actors Reject Contract Due to Low Pay

An influential group of voice actors in the Screen Actors Guild told the LA Times that they rejected a contract from game publishers because it meant more work for less money.

The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) is a union representing movie actors but it also negotiates with the game industry. In October, SAG rejected a proposed contract, mostly because of one sticking point regarding "atmospheric" voices in video games. The proposed contract would pay actors $800 for a four-hour session and voicing up to 20 characters of 300 words each. Principle characters, defined as advancing the plot of the game, would be paid the same for up to three character voices. SAG rejected this proposal because in essence it would mean that actors would be paid less for doing more voices, which could injure or impair their vocal chords.

"Before, you were doing three characters dying a horrible death. Now you're doing 20 characters dying a horrible death," said Dee Baker, whose voice appeared in games like Halo 2 and Spore. "Not only will this mean less money for more experiences, it's also going to be a lot more vocally difficult."

It is clear that securing good voice acting is becoming more important when developing games in this generation. The numbers are staggering: Mass Effect 2 will have 90 actors playing 546 characters, speaking over 31,000 lines, Uncharted 2's cutscenes total over 90 minutes, the length of a feature film.

One wonders, then, why game companies are so quick to give voice actors short shrift. The contract did propose a 2.5% increase in wages, but that barely covers inflation.

The problem with the breakdown in negotiations is that 80% of the talent used in games is not represented by SAG, so their leverage is limited. Why bother paying SAG actors more when game companies can just hire non-union newbies to handle the increased load of voice acting that many games now demand?

Contract negotiations in the entertainment industry are never easy, as the TV writers strike a few years ago showed. But as more and more "big names" enter the videogame voice acting landscape, we will most likely see the conflict escalate before it gets any better.

And if the accents in The Saboteur are any indication, the games industry needs better voice actors.

Source: Gamepolitics [http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-actors7-2009dec07,0,6235255,full.story]

Permalink

 

[hypothetical fact]

20 characters for one voice actor!? These people have clearly never seen Oblivion.

 

[Booze Zombie]

Game companies don't respect voice acting talent, I've been hearing about this for some time.

 

[Worgen]

voice acting is one of thoes things that game companies know they need for most games but really dont want to have to deal with

 

[Tharticus]

Voice acting in a video game isn't necessary but it's a nice plus. That's why text dialogue still exists.

 

[Therumancer]

Game companies don't respect voice acting talent, I've been hearing about this for some time.

I have mixed opinions on the subject.

In the past I've talked about corruption in the games industry and the fact that I think people are being overpaid. When I look at some of the price tags attached to games it's pretty ridiculous, I mean even with hundreds of employees when your spending a quarter of a billion dollars to produce a video game something is wrong. I think a big part of it is the fact that a lot of people in the industry have simply gotten TOO greedy and are demanding what amounts to lavish fees for doing very little. Much like Hollywood.

I point this out because the sheer amount of money tossed into games is one of the excuses used to try and justify the high prices. Albeit the high prices are also largely because nobody in the goverment cares enough to prevent them from engaging in price fixing (like when the industry as a whole pulled a $10 price hike), and the simple fact that with price fixing it means that a game costing a quarter of a billion (I refer to Modern Warfare 2 here), and one developed on a shoestring both wind up costing the same price upon release.

Going into voice acting I am looking at people basically whining about getting paid $200.00 an hour, and I think that represents a mentality that is destroying the game industry, and hurting us gamers as a whole. Sure, it can be argued that 'voice actors' are a skilled profession but so are a lot of things that make a lot less money than they do. I think the basic issue is the fact that they feel they CAN demand more money given these ridiculous budgets so they are going to do so.

Truthfully this is pretty lulzworthy because back when I was seriously following Anime a lot of magazines and such did articles on voice actors since they were just coming into demand to produce quality dubs and such. The basic gist of it was that these guys were doing it for peanuts and were lucky if they could support themselves at it, mostly sticking in voice acting as a labor of love.

Now voice acting is taking off because video games want to use these guys too, and while I can see wanting to be able to support themselves, saying that a contract is "unfair" if they make $200.00 an hour is absolutly ridiculous. I think in this case the "Screen Actors Guild" is pretty much demonstrating the worst aspects of union behavior.

What's more demands this this trickle down to use consumers, because really the game industry is so excessively greedy and wasteful today, they aren't just going to "eat" the costs. Rather they will wind up hiking the price of a game another $5-$10 to cover it and leave us holding the check so to speak.

So basically my attitude is that they should pretty much tell the Voice Actors "have a nice life" and work around them with synthetic voice programs, volunteers, or whatever. Truthfully I'd rather suffer a year worth of cr@ppy voice acting... which we get half the time anyway... than have these guys dictating their pay rate quite this way because in the long run that hurts me.

I mean honestly, it's guys going from "I'm happy to make a living, and still have to do other jobs" to "Well geez, I need more money so I can afford that second Lamborgini and a garage expansion to hold it because of the space my boat is taking up next to the first one". There *IS* a middle ground. Nobody who makes $3,200 a month for working 4 hours a week is going to tug at my heart strings. Even if they do 20 differant voices and read a thousand lines in that time, it's still only four bloody hours. Plus for all their cries about strain I'd feel it's a safe bet that these guys are doing other jobs, and probably hitting every studio needing voice work in town that they can find.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

My uncle does that from time to time, he says its pointless compared with the other work. Thats why most voice acting is crap, it's crap actors getting the only work they can.

so are you saying your uncle is a crap actor then?

i think everyone is demanding too much money these days, they want more and more and want to do less for the same or more money. maybe they should be glad they even are being paid for the work

 

[ShadowKirby]

I mean honestly, it's guys going from "I'm happy to make a living, and still have to do other jobs" to "Well geez, I need more money so I can afford that second Lamborgini and a garage expansion to hold it because of the space my boat is taking up next to the first one". There *IS* a middle ground. Nobody who makes $3,200 a month for working 4 hours a week is going to tug at my heart strings. Even if they do 20 differant voices and read a thousand lines in that time, it's still only four bloody hours. Plus for all their cries about strain I'd feel it's a safe bet that these guys are doing other jobs, and probably hitting every studio needing voice work in town that they can find.

Believe me, voice actors can't afford a Lamborgini. The 4 hours at 200.00$/hour is maybe the only gig they will get in the whole month.

 

[scotth266]

Anyone who does voice acting in the Anime industry will tell you(they even produced a DVD) on how perilous getting work can be.

Can you give me the name of that DVD? My curiosity is piqued.

 

[300lb. Samoan]

20 characters for one voice actor!? These people have clearly never seen Oblivion.

To quote half-life, "but with good reason!!"

Entering the VG VO arena is reportedly very difficult, at least if you're from Ohio like me. Everyone I've talked to is clueless - I even had a guy, from L.A., a radio producer, tell me that character voice actors are in such low demand that it's not worth putting character work on a demo reel. Seriously, wtf. I've played so many games whose voice work made me cringe, yet people keep telling me the doors are sealed.

 

[Hitman Grant]

I'm split into two sides for this topic.

On the one hand, if a A-Class game company wish to use voice actors for cutscenes totaling to a full length feature film, why do the voice actors not deserve the pay of actors in A-Class films? The chance of acting anywhere, let alone voice acting, is a chance that ANY actor will grab by the horns because it might be all they do for that year, besides extra work which might come rarely and as a huge bonus.

On the other side of this, I, as a stage actor, have to endure two shows each day for weeks on end producing different ranges of voices which will more than likely total up to more lines than most voice actors have to produce for one game. My duty as an actor is to create the same impact of voice without impaling myself and I use different vocal techniques to get this result, so the fact that there is the quote: "which could injure or impair their vocal chords." is bullshit. SAG are beating around the bush and not stating their true intentions which is making the game companies pay more for their service.

You know I don't even make $100 for four hours on the job before taxes! And I make fairly decent pay for what I do. Fucking Hollywood crybabies, get a real job and then you can complain. You don't want that $800? Where the hell do I sign?

Quit your job, try to get into voice acting, or ANY acting... see how often that $800 dollars comes around.

 

[Jared]

20 characters for one voice actor!? These people have clearly never seen Oblivion.

lol, if they saw that script XD

 

[RatRace123]

I have alot of respect for voice actors, they aren't really treated all that well by game companies, well except for Michael Hollick (google it)

Still, if they did give newbies some jobs we might find new talent.

But still once again, Dee Bradley Baker is an insanely talented voice actor and he deserves a better pay for doing all the stuff he does.
Course, if I were a voice actor I'd appreciate getting my talents heard, no matter the price (for a while)

 

[Aardvark]

Here's an idea. Do all your voice acting online. Post on message boards and in chat rooms and recruit people for your parts that way. Most nerds have decent microphones, either built into headsets or from Rock Band. They'd be more than happy to work for a few bucks an hour. Using the power of technowizardry, the game companies can clean 'em up and stick 'em in. The number of pre-pubescent whiney little turds out there will more than make up for the lack of females.

 

[Low Key]

Maybe game companies need to cut down on non-plot voice acting. If SAG doesn't like what the video game industry is proposing, cutting them out all together should make them change their minds. Or game companies can do what movies have done for a long time and bring in random people off the street (aka extras) to do the bullshit stuff.

I'm sorry to be so crass about it, but I don't play video games for the voice acting.