Interesting Troy Baker Interview Fuels the Fire on the New HD Collection Voice Cast Controversy
Yesterday The Gaming Liberty posted an exclusive indepth interview with Troy Baker who has been given the role as James Sunderland’s voice for the upcoming Silent Hill HD Collection. The interview ranged from his past work as Vincent Brooks in Catherine, his future roles in both Arkham City as Two-Face and his lead role in Bioshock: Infinite but the big buzz from the Silent Hill fan base is his response to the controversy surrounding the new voice talent.
TGL: So Troy, I have to ask you about Silent Hill 2 HD because it emerged a couple of days ago that you are taking over from Mr. Guy Cihi as the voice of leading character James Sunderland. The new voices and the decision to re-voice the original characters have ignited a lot of controversy among fans of the original game. Tell us a little about how you first got involved in the new HD version and what do you make of the controversy that surrounds the re-voicing of the characters?
TB: Well, we found out last year that Konami were going to be doing this HD release and we weren’t sure exactly how it would go down or if Konami was simply going to an HD treatment of the game or redo the voices. It was all in deliberation for a time. Then it just emerged really quickly that they were going to recast and use new voices and we didn’t really know why. They just decided that they were going to do this. So we didn’t know if they wanted us to just voice match or if they wanted us to do something different. For the tenth year anniversary, they wanted to do something different that was new. They told us that obviously they don’t want to change the story or the gameplay or anything else but that they just kind of want to give it a fresh face.
Troy then goes on to explain his view on the involvement with Guy Cihi
But the fact that he’s talking about residuals being in videogames shows you just how out of the loop he is because residuals don’t happen. They don’t exist. Don’t think for a second that I don’t wish that I had a fraction of a penny for every unit sold of Call of Duty: Black Ops or Modern Warfare 2 or Modern Warfare 3 that we’re finishing up right now. I would love to see that. But that’s not how the system works right now. So it’s not that Konami wasn’t willing to pay them, he (Guy) wanted residuals, he wanted non-existent money that he felt that he was owed. So Konami has no fault in this whatsoever. And they wanted to use him again. Guy was the one who was outspoken about it and said that unless this happens he wouldn’t do it, so he forced Konami’s hands. So if anybody wants to blame anybody for why they chose new voices, they can go back to the original James and he’s the one to blame.
It would seem according to Troy Baker that Konami planned to have a new voice cast for the HD Collection to give the game a face lift for the 10th anniversary. They reached out to Guy Cihi to reprise his role but Guy felt he was owed residuals for his past work and said that unless that happened he wouldn’t do it. Unfortunately, “residuals don’t happen” in the game industry apparently so Konami had to find another person to play James.
As a big fan I find this really sad because having Guy back to reprise his role in the game would have made the collection that much cooler but at least there was an attempt on Konami’s part right?
Well today, Guy posted a response to the article and the ongoing debate over on his facebook wall.
Well now this leaves me even more confused! So there wasn’t any sort of contract or written agreement years ago about residuals but when Konami approached him 10 years later they wanted him to sign a “backdated release” (what is that? Something that says he wouldn’t get any past or future residuals?) and after he refused James was then recast?
Ugh, this isn’t making sense. I really hope something is worked out between Guy and Konami as an an option on the collection to switch between new and the old voice work would make my day. There still is no official response from Konami about this whole thing but I’ll keep my eyes and ears open for new any developments!
Source (The Gaming Liberty, Guy Cihi on Facebook)
Big thanks to Ashley Vendoc for pointing out the Troy Interview on the Silent Hill Experienced Facebook yesterday and thanks to Cj on Rely on Horror for pointing out Guy’s response today!
Am i missing something here? From what i’ve understood in the past, residuals customarily aren’t paid to VA’s for re-releases unless there’s something specifically stated in their contracts governing it, they only apply to use of the recorded materials in new releases. But from Guy’s post, it seems like he’s expecting compensation for re-released material IN SPITE of the admitted fact that there was no contractual obligation for Konami to do so. That makes no sense.
In addition, he makes mention of Sony picking up the rights to SH2 being the impetus towards a re-release of the material. But since the current movie is based on SH3 and not SH2, why would it be responsible for sparking a re-release of SH2?
I’m either misunderstanding completely what Mr. Cihi is saying here, or he’s just not making any sense. Can anyone clear this up for me?
Like you I’m confused about his response
What I’m reading into it is that he wants compensation now even though there was no agreement for residuals before and when they tried to get it in writing this time around for this HD release he refused.
Yeah, the more info that comes out about this, the more i get the feeling that Mr. Cihi is just trying to exploit a perceived lack of clarification regarding the law governing VA’s and their rights to seek compensation for past work, as opposed to Konami actively trying to screw anyone out of their rightful money. But it’s difficult to have an informed opinion, because what little info has come out has been either vague or contradictory, or both.
This gets more ridiculous by the day. I don’t care about Guy Cihi and how/if he was wronged. I also don’t care about Konami or Troy Baker. All I care about is Silent Hill and that at some point in the near future I will be playing an HD version of Silent Hill 2 and 3.
Sure, I kind of feel like a dick for saying that but Cihi/Baker could be anyone else in the world and many people would feel the exact same about them. The fact of the matter is that what fans feel for these voice actors is transferable. I’m skipping all that and just going for the game – the one thing I truly care about.
Agreed.
I totally agree with Troy.
Hrm… But Sony didn’t pick up the rights to the new 2nd Silent Hill film. Lionsgate did… and its not based off Silent Hill 2. I’m sooooo confused.
…And if there was no contract how is Konami contractually obligated to give him money for re-uses of his voice and mocap.
I just don’t get it.
Guy Cihi is due payment from Konsmi for re-use of any motion capture he performed (and he did a lot). To me, he had every right to ask for what he’s due. But, at the same time, it’s a bit strange how it’s all been going down. Konami shouldn’t have released details of a SH HD release until all the legalities and formalities had been sorted out….