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The voice actor behind "PEGI 18" says he was paid just €200 (www.eurogamer.net)

submitted 10 months ago by nanoUFO@sh.itjust.works to c/games@sh.itjust.works

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[-] misk@sopuli.xyz 85 points 10 months ago

That's fair, it's €100 per word.

[-] ivanafterall@kbin.social 78 points 10 months ago

His PEGI 18 work is great, but his PEGI 12 work is overlooked. I think it's where he really hit his stride in that role.

[-] Deceptichum@kbin.social 22 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

His PEGI-18 work was a little too new wave for my taste. But when PEGI-12 came out in '03, I think he really came into his own, commercially and artistically. The whole message has a clear, crisp sound, and a new sheen of consummate professionalism that really gives the message a big boost. He's been compared to ESRB, but I think PEGI has a far more bitter, cynical sense of humour.

[-] hoshikarakitaridia@sh.itjust.works 4 points 10 months ago

In all seriousness, I actually do like the PEGI12 one more. It's more poiniant in a weird way. I'm not even kidding.

[-] T0RB1T@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 months ago

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[-] Milk_Sheikh@lemm.ee 3 points 10 months ago

Omg but have you heard the Australian R18 announcer?!?! SO POWERFUL and yet derivative of the groundbreaking ESRB M rating

[-] AFC1886VCC@reddthat.com 19 points 10 months ago

I'd do it for half that amount. As many times as needed.

[-] gamingdexter@lemmy.ml 15 points 10 months ago

I can hear it when I read it

[-] can@sh.itjust.works 14 points 10 months ago

Damn PEGI

[-] KLISHDFSDF@lemmy.ml 20 points 10 months ago

[-] AEK@sopuli.xyz 10 points 10 months ago

Damn, Didn't expect him to be this old.

[-] kandoh@reddthat.com 4 points 10 months ago

He really put Pegi17 out of business

[-] theodewere@kbin.social 4 points 10 months ago

dude did it for the exposure

[+] Cold_Brew_Enema@lemmy.world -9 points 10 months ago

Sorry but is he complaining? It's two fucking words. It took more effort to type this comment than say the two words.

[-] prime_number_314159@lemmy.world 25 points 10 months ago

The quote of him in the article doesn't sound like it's a complaint. I think only the headline is pushing that angle. 200 pounds sounds pretty reasonable, given it has to be worth his time to get to the recording, listen to any feedback/change requests, etc.

[-] infinitepcg@lemmy.world 11 points 10 months ago

I'd be interested what people think he should be paid. Based on the downvotes on your comment, people say 200€ is too low? It was in 2009, so inflation adjusted it's 300€. And the article has the complete raw recording, it took him less than a minute.

[-] OfficerBribe@lemm.ee 6 points 10 months ago

I suppose some people expect you should get royalties every time your voice appears anywhere so in their eyes he should be a millionaire from this gig or something ridiculous like that.

[-] Shellbeach@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

Definitely not ridiculous to think so, considering how many people recognize his voice. Just like one great book will be bought by many people and make its author rich, a great line recognized by many people should be remunated as such.

[-] OfficerBribe@lemm.ee 8 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

It's couple words that could have been said by anyone with nice voice and good diction. I'm probably not such person, but if you would pick 100 random people, you would get someone who could do a good job for this kind of quick announcement.

Most internal employees would even do this for free. One time payment of 200 eur seems fair.

[-] Shellbeach@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

It would be devaluating the value and the work of voice over artists.

I'm not even a well known voice over artist and I get paid way more for words that fewer people will hear. And I'm not even in an union.

He got shafted.

[-] infinitepcg@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

More than 300€ per minute?

[-] Shellbeach@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

Much more depending on the usage. The length of the audio counts in the rate but less than its use, how long and where it would be used.

For instance, a perpetuity buyout (one of the thing he should have negotiated), are very expensive. Audiobooks for instance are longer but cheaper. My rate is 350/per finished hour for audiobooks, which is pretty average in the field. While a 30 seconds national radio commercial for my country, I would ask between 350 and 500, and that's with a limited time they would be allowed to use/broadcast it.

Here is a rate sheet for standard usage, if you are interested: https://globalvoiceacademy.com/gvaa-rate-guide-2/

I'm so excited, I don't get to talk about this aspect of my job often :)) Thank you for your interest so far!

[-] boredtortoise@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

It's ok for the day's work but the usage rights seem to go on forever and that should be compensated as well

[-] addie@feddit.uk 1 points 10 months ago

Seems fair both ways to me. That doesn't seem an unreasonable amount of pay for a day's work, as even if the 'final product' is only a minute, it will still have stopped him from doing much other work that day. Contrariwise, if he'd been asking for any more, the client would have been able to find someone else to do it just as well at the original price, since the requirement is basically 'clearly spoken'. Wouldn't make sense to get Ian McKellen in to interpret this bit of acting work.

[-] Shellbeach@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

The rights for usage should be much much higher. Just like recording Siri's voice and an e-learning project might have taken the same time but the usage and how many people are going to hear the voice is widely different.

Furthermore, "it only took him a minute" is akin to say to a graphic designer why pay him so much for a website that took him less than a day to do: it takes years, practice, and skill to be able to do in only a minute.

If anything, considering that a lot of people seems to recognize his voice, he should have been able to retire on this simple few words.

Just like one good jingle or one hit wonder can make their author very rich.

this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2024

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