Recently some voice actors have voiced (lol) their intention of going to a strike if their specific demands are not met when contracted for work by gaming companies:

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=208505&page=1

But of course not everyone in the videogaming world is behind them.

- For example, Alex Hutchinson Creative Director (Assassin's Creed III,Far Cry 4) tweeted the following:

If @WilWheaton gets royalties on a game before myself or any of the others who spent years (not weeks) working on it, the system is broken.

— Alex Hutchinson (@BangBangClick) September 23, 2015

@wilw Tthe idea that not paying royalties is equal to us not caring about vocal performance is ridiculous.

— Alex Hutchinson (@BangBangClick) September 23, 2015

- his response appears to come as a result of this paragraph from Wil Wheaton's appeal to videogame voice actors' demands:

“I can’t speak to the fairness or unfairness of residuals or lack of residuals for programmers, artists, composers, and others who game developers and publishers, because that’s not my job, and I don’t know what, precisely, their contracts are. I certainly don’t believe that there is some sort of feud or lack of shared interest between us (the actors) and them, and I fully support all the people who work on games — especially the huge blockbuster games that pull in profits that are in line with the biggest blockbuster movies — getting the very best contract, with the best compensation and best working conditions that they possibly can.

[...]

I love the work that I do. I’m grateful for the work that I have, and I’ve been lucky to work with some incredibly talented people on both sides of the recording studio glass. This isn’t about making enemies of the other creative people in the business, be they directors, studio engineers, artists, programmers, sound designers, writers, etc. This is about a handful of extremely wealthy, extremely powerful people trying to take away our ability to make a living, to take care of our voices, and to be safe on the set.”

-In SAG-AFTRA’s FAQ about the vote, here’s what they cited as evidence for why performers should qualify for bonuses and other payouts after release:

“The top games make money. This industry has grown, boomed and morphed into something bigger and lucrative than any other segment of the entertainment industry, and it continues to do so. The truth is, back end bonuses are not uncommon in the video game industry. Last year, Activision’s COO took home a bonus of $3,970,862. EA paid their executive chairman a bonus of $1.5 million. We applaud their success, and we believe our talent and contributions are worth a bonus payment, too.”

- to what Arkane Studios level designer Shawn Elliott, formerly of Irrational Games responded:

- Michael Hollick spoke with The New York Times about how little he received for voicing Nico Bellic, despite the game going on to sell millions and millions of copies:

“Obviously I’m incredibly thankful to Rockstar for the opportunity to be in this game when I was just a nobody, an unknown quantity,” Mr. Hollick, 35, said last week over dinner in Willamsburg, Brooklyn, shortly after performing in the aerial theater show “Fuerzabruta” in Union Square. “But it’s tough, when you see Grand Theft Auto IV out there as the biggest thing going right now, when they’re making hundreds of millions of dollars, and we don’t see any of it. I don’t blame Rockstar. I blame our union for not having the agreements in place to protect the creative people who drive the sales of these games. Yes, the technology is important, but it’s the human performances within them that people really connect to, and I hope actors will get more respect for the work they do within those technologies.”

- Hollick was paid $100,000 for roughly 15 months of work against more than $600 million made in the first three weeks according to Take-Two

http://kotaku.com/not-everyone-is-supporting-a-possible-voice-actor-strik-1732874431?

Please don't use the "easy" card. Nothing is "easy". I'm on both devs and actors side. The bigger question is why the devs don't get some royalties too. There has to be a fair balance. If it was so easy. Go voice act. Only the R* company can get money for the rest of the softwares life? That's fair? Argue the size of the royalties. Not that it should or shouldn't be done.

It's funny you said those examples. Were on many occasions when those actors aren't used, the product does weaker. The Pokemon series has been dropping in viewership when the original VA cast was dropped. So now it's in those early morning shows of just exsiting. And a lot of the Batman, Superman, JL direct movies do poorer when Kevin Conroy, dosen't do them. Keri Russell did a perfect job as Wonder Woman, in her solor animated film. She was never used again. And Susan Eisenberg who's been doing Diana the most, in the Justice League days. Get's to do the part the most times. Itis one of the major reasons why people gave the Arkham series a chance. And why Marvel tried to do a simlair thing with Sipder-Man shadow dimensions.

It's why I have interest with Patltium games Transformers game. I would give two shits. And pan the game off and cash in junk. But Patinum Games hired All G1 voices, and designs from the series. It's now worth my time. That's the power they have. But I'm still not saying the Dev team is chop liver.

I'd like you to say that in a room with Uncharted or Last Of Us fans. I soley use Fem shep because Jennifer Hale voices the part. And I don't like Mark Meer's way of doing it. I'm not a hardcore fan towards ME. But I enjoy the voice actress. Which is why I got ME 2. Then the trology set. If she was thrown out. I would of quit the game. And not cared. I played Gears Of War 1 for John DiMaggio. I didn't like the game. But I gave it a chance, because I like Bender, and Jake.

I am 100% pro-union, and I like Wil Wheaton, but I have to agree with Alex Hutchinson here. These are not movies and these are not TV shows. The stars are not the actors in this case. The stars are the developers. They should be the ones getting any royalties.

I don't buy UC accessories. I only have the games. And got 3 first. I didn't care about the series. Till I saw a UC 3 trailer ad on Youtube. And was like oh crap, that's deadpool and Aeryn Sun. I got it for the sake of the voices I knew: Nolan North & Claudia Black. Then I loved it. Bought the first two games. And now preordered UC4. Voices are important than you think. You don't need to know the actors names. You can just reconize the voice. Who here knows Jim Cummings? I doubt anyone does. But if I said Darkwing Duck, Monteray Jack, Pete, or Louie. You'd know him.

Its not like voice actors are underpaid. Seriously theyre just beeing greedy, if every person involved in game development gets royalties the game will never be profitable. Voice actors are hired to do a job, get welll payed for it, if the job is well done they get famous and are hired by a bunch of other companies for many more jobs (presumably for higher pay) and thats reward enought for doing a good job.

If that was the case. Movies and shows would be in shambles. It's a percent. A very low one. For both sides. And that isn't even the argument. It's the fact said company is still making money off a product for doing nothing anymore. That's were the dev and actor work comes into play.

i dont think the VAs are against the devs getting more money. but its not the VAs job to fight for the devs, its the devs job to fight for them selves

Differently from movies and shows the voice actors arent what sells the game, the game is, and that means if you gona pay royalties you need to pay it for the devs, and that just wouldnt work cause dev teams are enormous, theyre not a couple of actors theyre like 200 ppl.

Your case is a very rare one where you bought a game because of a voice actor, basicaly no one does it and most ppl have no idea who is voicing wich character going into a game. I know Nolan North and Troi Bakers name cause theyre everywhere giving interviews, aside from them I know no other and I learn who voiced wich character after I play the game. I dont remember who voiced Sora, who voiced Shepard or any of the ME party members, who voiced Hawk the Inquisitor, Geralt of Rivia or Ciri. I know they did a good job but I have no idea who they are and I would never have bought those games if the gameplay, systems, story and whatnot werent top notch even if it had the best voice actor in the planet in it.

I would maybe be slightly moved by theyre movement if they were some sort of underpaid factory workers, they arent they get payed extremelly well, so they should just stop being greedy realy and be happy they have such great jobs were they get to work in videogames and make big bucks.