I just found this interesting read on the MTV Multiplayer blog. It seems that publishers withhold developer royalties if a game does not achieve a desirable Metacritic score. Frankly, it's disgusting.
This quote from Jeff Gerstmann summarizes it:
"I’ve gotten e-mails from developers over the years who have said, 'I don’t think you realize what you’re doing to me with this review' because my review knocked them out of the range of some bonus that they were up for," Gerstmann said. "That’s something that really troubles me… When I’m sitting down to write a review I’m never setting out to think: 'I am taking food off this guy’s table.'"
This comes in light of the Grand Theft Auto IV voice actor controversy. The guy who voiced Nico "only" got a hundred grand and felt a bit cheated when he saw that the game was breaking sales records. Maybe he does deserve a bit of royalties for making an annoying voice (and he'll probably get some more if they haven't already recorded voice work for the upcoming DLC), but as this was discussed on 1UP Yours, this will also make game development costs go up.
Now, I don't know how luxurious the lifestyles of David Hayter (Solid Snake) or James Arnold Taylor (Ratchet, Tidus) are -- hell, even Charles Martinet (Mario) probably gets paid pretty well for making a few silly remarks that are repeated ad nauseum because Nintendo doesn't want to evolve narrative in their games -- but are voices really that important in games?
I say yes, to a point. I wouldn't want Snake voiced by anyone else, but I think it's also a stupid practice for studios to shell out big bucks for "big name" voice actors hoping that that'll possibly entice people to play their games. We see how well that works when licensed games are put out with Tobey McGuire sounding like he's about to nod off from heroin. The opposite is also true, however, when we hear the developers themselves try to voice the characters. It might have been charming in the day to hear Bill Roper scream "Zug-zug!" when you where playing WarCraft, but now that idea is pretty silly (although there is a place for it in certain games, I'm sure). I'm also totally against the idea of games going "silent" again. How much of Bioshock's impact would be lost if you only read a text bubble that said "Would you kindly?"
I don't have any ideas for how to make games less expensive. How could I? I only play the things. I've no real idea of what it takes to make them, but I do know that it's only fair to give people their fair share, especially when you're making money hand over fist.
This quote from Jeff Gerstmann summarizes it:
"I’ve gotten e-mails from developers over the years who have said, 'I don’t think you realize what you’re doing to me with this review' because my review knocked them out of the range of some bonus that they were up for," Gerstmann said. "That’s something that really troubles me… When I’m sitting down to write a review I’m never setting out to think: 'I am taking food off this guy’s table.'"
This comes in light of the Grand Theft Auto IV voice actor controversy. The guy who voiced Nico "only" got a hundred grand and felt a bit cheated when he saw that the game was breaking sales records. Maybe he does deserve a bit of royalties for making an annoying voice (and he'll probably get some more if they haven't already recorded voice work for the upcoming DLC), but as this was discussed on 1UP Yours, this will also make game development costs go up.
Now, I don't know how luxurious the lifestyles of David Hayter (Solid Snake) or James Arnold Taylor (Ratchet, Tidus) are -- hell, even Charles Martinet (Mario) probably gets paid pretty well for making a few silly remarks that are repeated ad nauseum because Nintendo doesn't want to evolve narrative in their games -- but are voices really that important in games?
I say yes, to a point. I wouldn't want Snake voiced by anyone else, but I think it's also a stupid practice for studios to shell out big bucks for "big name" voice actors hoping that that'll possibly entice people to play their games. We see how well that works when licensed games are put out with Tobey McGuire sounding like he's about to nod off from heroin. The opposite is also true, however, when we hear the developers themselves try to voice the characters. It might have been charming in the day to hear Bill Roper scream "Zug-zug!" when you where playing WarCraft, but now that idea is pretty silly (although there is a place for it in certain games, I'm sure). I'm also totally against the idea of games going "silent" again. How much of Bioshock's impact would be lost if you only read a text bubble that said "Would you kindly?"
I don't have any ideas for how to make games less expensive. How could I? I only play the things. I've no real idea of what it takes to make them, but I do know that it's only fair to give people their fair share, especially when you're making money hand over fist.
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