Videogame Voice Actors union possibly getting ready to strike

[Paula Deen]

EOTN was $39.99. Granted that was back in 2007, but still.

Pretty sure all expansions were 39.99. Hell most of them were even cheaper because you could buy it with Plat. Not getting into GW2 and its bs in this thread though.

[Tech614]

You can find hundreds, if not thousands of texts across the internet of companies that do gaming hire shit loads of people during Crunch Period (the few months before a game launches where conditions are awful and pay is low) and then fire almost all of them after the game launches.

Yet once again prove me wrong that these guys don't have imediate jobs lined up and know what their role is. Show me proof they go "months" between jobs.

Video Game designers and programmers are not filling up the unemployment line. That is a fact. In fact the field is actually a pretty secure job, albeit you do have to move quite often before settling down somewhere. The field is also growing, grew 20% in the last decade and is set to grow another 22% in the next decade.

Stop with the bullshit hyperbole that because developers bounce around from studio to studio "they don't have a steady job" when they most certainly do.

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I understand more about them than you do. If a company is making $50 and their costs increase then they will, in all likelihood, increase the price to cover that increased cost. If they have to pay royalties of 5% (or in the case of VA's a fixed fee per copy sold) they will increase the price accordingly. Say, using our example above, the price was $100 and the profit $50. If they have to pay a 10% royalty then they would increase the price to keep that profit. Not to $110 because they would still come out with less than $50 but to something like $115. That gives the royalty owner $11.5 and the profit for the company would be $53.5. You see, increasing the price covered the cost of the new royalties and still had some left over.

Oh ye, with simple math not taking into account the lost sales numbers at full price from the price increase, which you can't actually put a proper number on and is far more risky then losing 1.5% more in royalties to try.

[Kyanion]

I don't begrudge them for pushing for more money and I agree with some of the stuff they want, but man, that Wil Wheaton blog post trying to garner sympathy for one of the cushiest gigs in the industry irritates the hell out of me.

"It's actually really hard work, guys! You have to talk for hours, and you get so sick of lemon tea! It takes like seven hours! I had to eat chicken soup for lunch because my throat's sore!"

Cry me a river. This is a passion profession, and it pays incredibly well. Troy Baker and Tara Strong are multi-millionaires. I get that it can be emotionally or physically demanding, but, seriously, these guys often make thousands of dollars for one day's work, and can also get lucrative work from film, commercial, radio, and animation gigs.

The people who really deserve better pay and conditions are the programmers, testers, etc. who are so disposable that unionizing is basically impossible.

Yeah the sympathy train isn't leaving the station here either. Oh no you strained your voice for talking for so many hours! Drink your tea and STFU. If the job is so demanding and you are whining so much Mr. Wheaton then it means you must not have the passion for it anymore, go do something else. But don't worry, plenty of people in line to take your job buddy.

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If you think that most are good, you must play a select few games.

Edit: Or you're the type of person that thinks english dubs for anime is actually good.

*cringe* English dubs! So many of those are so so terrible, good lord. Though there are a fair number of excellent dubbed anime out there just so so many of them suck out loud.

[Gray_Matter]

Oh ye, with simple math not taking into account the lost sales numbers at full price from the price increase, which you can't actually put a proper number on and is far more risky then losing 1.5% more in royalties to try.

There is already talk of AAA games going up to $80 or even $90 in price. This would just be another factor to add to that argument. These companies have bean counters that work out exactly what price to charge for the best return. Blizzard didn't push up the price of WoD on the spur of the moment. They worked out exactly what the effect would be and how much people were prepared to pay for the expansion.

[Tech614]

There is already talk of AAA games going up to $80 or even $90 in price. This would just be another factor to add to that argument. These companies have bean counters that work out exactly what price to charge for the best return. Blizzard didn't push up the price of WoD on the spur of the moment. They worked out exactly what the effect would be and how much people were prepared to pay for the expansion.

No there isn't. There was talks of it before Xbox One and PS4 games had MSRPs put on them, but them staying at $59.99 MSRP was very telling when every other disc based generation went up $10 in MSRP. Prices are not increasing any time soon, if companies thought they could get away with that they sure as hell would.

You seem to be talking about expansion packs which range all over the place in prices, but there is a standard for AAA games and it is $59.99. The fact companies like Rockstar who could even get away with releasing a $100 GTA won't is very telling. Prices aren't increasing any time soon. You would know this if you where paying attention.

Publishers know $59.99 is the sweet spot that gets a lot of sales at full price. Going much higher would end up in people not even touching the game until it was 50% off which in today's market is like a few months for most games. Most games make the majority of their money in launch month, so getting as many full price sales in that first month is vital to the profit of the game. Increasing initial price is risky business- one NO AAA publisher has taken in a decade.

[Hellfury]

Hollywood unions are a cancer

[johnhoftb]

http://deadline.com/2016/10/strike-d...es-1201837330/

Strike date set for October 21st if their demands aren't met.

VA companies set to be affected if it happens:

• Activision Publishing, Inc.
• Blindlight, LLC
• Corps of Discovery Films
• Disney Character Voices, Inc.
• Electronic Arts Productions, Inc.
• Formosa Interactive, LLC
• Insomniac Games, Inc.
• Interactive Associates, Inc.
• Take 2 Interactive Software
• VoiceWorks Productions, Inc.
• WB Games, Inc.

[DesoPL]

http://deadline.com/2016/10/strike-d...es-1201837330/

Strike date set for October 21st if their demands aren't met.

VA companies set to be affected if it happens:

• Activision Publishing, Inc.
• Blindlight, LLC
• Corps of Discovery Films
• Disney Character Voices, Inc.
• Electronic Arts Productions, Inc.
• Formosa Interactive, LLC
• Insomniac Games, Inc.
• Interactive Associates, Inc.
• Take 2 Interactive Software
• VoiceWorks Productions, Inc.
• WB Games, Inc.

Good! Let the Activision, Disney and EA suffer on thier greed.

Hope this is first sign for changes in whole game industry if not. I will definetly loose my faith...

[Nitros14]

They get paid very little and are very critical to how good a game is. Voice acting is a huge part of most games for me.