Wheaton Explains Agreement Between Actors and Game Producers

Posted on June 14, 2005

Actor, blogger and writer Wil Wheaton has a detailed blog post explaining the deal between voice actors and video game producers. Wheaton says that the residual payments the actors wanted are not profit-sharing like this Reuters article suggests. Wheaton also says the actors were asking for an additional session fee but only after the game had sold a minimum of 50,000 copies. Wil Wheaton says the actors made some gains but he still wishes they had some residual payments:

Anyway, the gains we made are not that great, but they don't completely suck, either:
  • An immediate 25 percent increase in minimum wages from $556 to $695 for a four-hour session for up to three voices with increases in subsequent years, bringing the daily rate up to $759.
  • Double time pay after six hours (previously ten hours) for three-voice performers.
  • A 7.5 percent increase in contributions to the unions' benefits plans, bringing the rate up to 14.3 percent.

    I'm very happy about the increase in contributions to the benefits plans, and it's great that 25% of the increase comes right away (usually it's spread out over three years) but I really wish we'd gotten some sort of residual structure in place.

    • More from Gamers Game