Voice Actors Guild strike averted

by: Chuck - posted: 6/10/2005 7:14:00 PM

I guess we can all breathe a little easier now that the voice actors guild and the video game industry have come to a settlement. Kotaku has a good summary of what the actors gained out of the strike and Internet Celebrity/writer Wil Wheaton has also posted a response on his blog. I guess this means we'll be spared from some really bad voice over acting in big games but you know that those additional fees are going to be passed along to gamers.

For me it's frustrating to see someone besides the programmers, designers, and artists getting a raise. You can have a game without VO work but it's hard to have a game without the people who actually do the grunt work and put in the long crunch time hours to get something out the door. Then again I've only been on the development side of the house and I've thankfully never had to depend on my voice to support my family. I guess this just comes down to the choices we make in our lives.

I also have to wonder how this will impact VO work in general. Are we going to continue seeing big games with huge all-star voice talent (like the Grand Theft Auto or James Bond franchises) or are we going to see more games with generic talent so that companys will be a little more budget constrained. Only time will tell.