2 ms·

Sure, and Hollywood could stop recording audio and go back to silent movies because movies don’t ‘require’ sound.

mcpackieh 3y ago
Basically correct, although it wouldn't actually happen unless sound in movies became cost prohibitive (which is what we're discussing.) However in video-games this is even more true. 'Talkies' crushed silent movies, out-competed them very rapidly in the span of a few years. But in video games this didn't happen, video games with voice acting have existed for roughly 30 years now but video games without voice acting still frequently find commercial success. In fact the most successful video game of all time, minecraft, has no voice acting despite competing against innumerable contemporary games with voice acting.
- nirvdrum 3y ago
  And some of the top grossing video games of all time have voice acting. The modern Rockstar and Naughty Dog games would be less attractive and have much less emotional impact without the characters coming to life via voice. Character models help sell games, too. Sure, voice acting isn't required for all genres and many don't need motion capture, but if they didn't add anything studios could save a ton of money by cutting it out. It turns out not everyone wants to play indie platformers or sandboxed builders. You could of course use non-union voice actors, but it's pretty easy to tell when games use random people to narrate or voice characters. It often harms the product.
- squeaky-clean 3y ago
  Minecraft has no storyline or named characters though. It's not really "competing" against games with voice acting, as they're totally different genres. To me this feels like like saying movies don't need better CGI than Playstation 2 quality because of how's successful Paw Patrol and Baby Shark are.
- bluefirebrand 3y ago
  Personally I skip all voiced lines in games the moment I finish reading the subtitles. I could not care less if they were voiced or not. No disrespect to the actors, I just don't play games to sit and listen to them talk. I want to get back to gameplay as fast as possible

Basically correct, although it wouldn't actually happen unless sound in movies became cost prohibitive (which is what we're discussing.) However in video-games this is even more true. 'Talkies' crushed silent movies, out-competed them very rapidly in the span of a few years. But in video games this didn't happen, video games with voice acting have existed for roughly 30 years now but video games without voice acting still frequently find commercial success. In fact the most successful video game of all time, minecraft, has no voice acting despite competing against innumerable contemporary games with voice acting.

nirvdrum 3y ago
And some of the top grossing video games of all time have voice acting. The modern Rockstar and Naughty Dog games would be less attractive and have much less emotional impact without the characters coming to life via voice. Character models help sell games, too. Sure, voice acting isn't required for all genres and many don't need motion capture, but if they didn't add anything studios could save a ton of money by cutting it out. It turns out not everyone wants to play indie platformers or sandboxed builders. You could of course use non-union voice actors, but it's pretty easy to tell when games use random people to narrate or voice characters. It often harms the product.
squeaky-clean 3y ago
Minecraft has no storyline or named characters though. It's not really "competing" against games with voice acting, as they're totally different genres. To me this feels like like saying movies don't need better CGI than Playstation 2 quality because of how's successful Paw Patrol and Baby Shark are.
bluefirebrand 3y ago
Personally I skip all voiced lines in games the moment I finish reading the subtitles. I could not care less if they were voiced or not. No disrespect to the actors, I just don't play games to sit and listen to them talk. I want to get back to gameplay as fast as possible