If voice overs are really so expensive then how does...

[Ighten]

DCUO has a small amount of VO compared to this and most of that is created using techniques with fewer actors.. I also suspect its licensing deal is much more favorable compared to anything carrying the SW brand..

 

In the end I suspect its that which is and has been the real money throttling issue for SWTOR.. Its sadly money down the drain and doesnt go any where into the development and too many people wanted to outbid each other just to get it with little thought if they could survive afterwards.

[chris_rw]

I work in the animated film world and I've worked with well known celebrity voices for $1k/day , which isn't that much in the scheme of a large operation. While it's spendy, I can't imagine it's that much.

[tXHereticXt]

So much has been said about the price of TOR and the majority going into voice overs but is it really? I don't have all the facts so I'm laying the question out here. Are voice overs really so expensive that they are the main reason for such a large budget and now the reason updates are far, few and small in between?

 

Everyone costs money for their survices, actors are rich for the parts they play and a voice actor is no exception (though they may make marginally less). This industry costs a hefty amount of money, why do you think Bethesda recycles so many voice actors?

 

Of course with such a high price already, they should have had the ability for the player to choose what male/female voices you could pick from. I'd love to have the JK's(Solid Snake) voice for the Consular or Juggernaught.

Edited January 24, 2013 by tXHereticXt

[EATtheDEAD]

So much has been said

 

Disclaimer: I didn't read any of the OP post.

 

Bioware didn't spend that much money on voice overs. Everyone know by now they spent it all on ******s and alcohol.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disclaimer: Nothing I said has any basis in fact.

[FreePrometheus]

DCUO have decent update? WHEN was that? its been out since 2009 and SWTOR beat the hell out of it when it come to content, not to say the balance is horrible and they found a way to make the unreal engine crash lol.

 

But comparing DCUO voice over to swtor is not really fair since it got only 5% maximum of what SWTOR have.

Unless we get the % for voice over and full real cost of the game we cant say.

 

They crashed Unreal Engine?! How in the name of the force did they do that?

 

But yeah, from what i've seen on IMDB the actors that voice acted this game are somewhat impressive. Cant speak as to DCUO. Not all of the SWTOR actors are top rated admittedly. But they do have some good ones. And actors of a certain calibre are gonna want paying larger amounts. Plus they have actors that acted for Bioware before, and you can bet they are paying them double to keep them in their pockets. The woman who acts Shatele Shan, for instance. (forget the actresses name at the moment) Then you have the purchase and maintenace of sound equipment... I could go on. VO are very expensive when you really look close at the big picture of what they do.

 

Hope i have helped

 

Ps; If anyone has stated any of this before, i am sorry. I didnt read all the posts. Just OP's.

Edited January 24, 2013 by FreePrometheus

[Diefenbaker]

It comes down to how much time goes into it. Recording all this stuff takes time. There are usually different takes until everybody's happy. That can take quite some time and the longer it takes, the more money it costs.

 

But I guess many people here think this kind of stuff is just talking into a mic for 10 minutes and that's it.

[Baptes]

I have to assume that they shelled out too much money for special voice acting contracts. I'll be honest, I'd love to see an audit report of how they spent the money.

You and me both. For the insane budget of SWTOR, I'd expect monthly updates of voiced content that they had already created a year in advance. We get nothing of the sort.

 

I'd really like to know where all the money went if not voice acting (which I don't believe for a second it was) because it sure as heck wan't spent on the game engine!

[Selethar]

While the gist of the particualr quest doesn't change, the responses and dialogue from the NPCs will change based on race, gender, choice and you can get unique sets for choosing LS/DS options.

[MarvelZombie]

Classic internet. There's never been any confirmation anywhere that lays the 'blame' for SWTORs rumored enormous development budget (the exact number is also up for debate) on voiceover costs. You'll never know exactly what percentage of SWTORs costs went to VO work....you'll just guess, and probably quite inaccurately.

 

However, to the OPs.....er...question (?), I think we can guess that SWTOR VO is much more expensive than DCUO VO, not just based on the staggering volume of VO SWTOR has, but especially when you look at integrating dynamic cutscenes, branching dialogue, and companions into the model. The software support for a SWTOR single mission briefing dialogue is much more involved than simply having Batman's head appear at the top of your screen telling you to go get him a coffee with two creams and one sugar.

Edited January 24, 2013 by MarvelZombie

[Lionflash]

While the gist of the particualr quest doesn't change, the responses and dialogue from the NPCs will change based on race, gender, choice and you can get unique sets for choosing LS/DS options.

 

Exaclty

 

Even you class. I've noticed that NPCs not only recognize that the Trooper is part of Havok Squad, but also your rank, (ex: Leutenant, Sargeant etc...)

 

Each class does also have it's own unique dialogue choices. The best examples come from the Smuggler. NPCs also respond to everything you say and specifically to what you just said. The Sumggler's sarcastic/cheeky response is a lot different than the Jedi Knights dialogue choices.

 

Don't forget each companion has their own dialogue and input in class quests. (Anyone ever press 'ESC' and switch out each companion to hear what they would each say?)

 

Class Quests, Planetary Quests, Random Quests, Companion Quests, Flashpoints and even new quests going forward not only have VO but each time you get atleast 3 choices which are VOed by each of the 16 main voice actors (male and female).

 

Where SWTORs huge chunk of VO comes from is probably because BW decided to make each of the 8 main characters fully voiced by both genders and also voice the 40 companions (mind you, some don't speak basic and T7 doesn't speak at all, it's all under the VO I think) a choice I'm glad they made.

[SnoggyMack]

Even you class. I've noticed that NPCs not only recognize that the Trooper is part of Havok Squad, but also your rank, (ex: Leutenant, Sargeant etc...)

 

That's not as special as it seems. It's tied to level range of the planet. I had to skip ahead because of how hard Sgt. Shorzen was. And I was still a "captain" but was being called "major" on the next planet. Also, if you go back to, say, Tattooine and do a heroic quest or other grayed out quest you may have forgot ... they don't call you major.

[SnoggyMack]

dcuo voice overs are more you zoom in kinda on the hero or whatever talking, and they just flail there arms or make hand gestures or whatever while the voice track plays, but i can imagine some of the voices cost a bit to record, mark hamill, kevin conroy etc

 

although i dont have a problem with this kind of "cut scene" it sorta fits with the games style anyways

 

Thing about those DCUO voice actors is, many of them are already doing voice actor work for the company's animated films. Mark Hammil, Arleen Sorkin, Kevin Conroy, Gina Torres ... they may not have been such a huge drain on the budget since they were already doing work for animated stuff.

[TUXs]

So much has been said about the price of TOR and the majority going into voice overs but is it really? I don't have all the facts so I'm laying the question out here. Are voice overs really so expensive that they are the main reason for such a large budget and now the reason updates are far, few and small in between?

 

Don't believe the false speculation on this games production costs. It's obvious that this game wasn't 1/2, or even 1/4 the rumored amount to make. The gameplay itself is nothing more than any other budget title...the story and the VO's are where the bulk of their budget went...and the VO's in this game are DAMN good imo.

[Lionflash]

That's not as special as it seems. It's tied to level range of the planet. I had to skip ahead because of how hard Sgt. Shorzen was. And I was still a "captain" but was being called "major" on the next planet. Also, if you go back to, say, Tattooine and do a heroic quest or other grayed out quest you may have forgot ... they don't call you major.

 

I suppose it would have been too much to ask for them to keep that going as you level, but it's still going the extra mile (if you don't play the story out of order) to make your character feel unique and feel like NPCs can actually recognize who you are and what you've done.

 

What I meant was that in most other games NPCs speak to you in a very neutral way so they don't have to re-record the same scene over and over. But in SWTOR NPCs have say "...oh your Darth Baras's Apprentice" or "Leutenant, we could really use Havok squad right about now."

[Tumedus]

Personally, I think people vastly overestimate the cost of the VO. A quick google search found me these two sites:

http://www.voices.com/rates.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/07/11/star-wars-the-old-republics-voice-acting-process-detailed/

 

A base rate of $300 for the first hour and $100 for each additional hour seems to be the standard rate, 4 hour hour sessions leads us to average payout of $600 per session. But even at 1000 sessions thats only $600,000.

 

Now sure, some actors probably charge more, but there aren't really that many big names in there. Sure, its awesome that the Emperor is voiced by Pinhead, but somehow I doubt Doug Bradley is charging a premium. And there might be bonuses or extra contractural expenses to make sure certain actors remain available for future productsion. And the article said over 1000, not strictly limited to 1000.

 

But the thing is, even if we inflate that first total, it still doesn't make that large of a dent in the overall cost of the game. Even I was off by an order of magnitude, that still would only account for 6million in a game that cost over 100 million (based on statement that it was the most expensive project they had ever done).

 

And remember, of all the things in this game, the voice-over and the conversation wheel are probably the thing BW as a company had the most experience with and thus could build the most efficiently.

 

No, if you want to look at what made this game cost a bunch of money to build, I suspect its things most people don't even think about; building systems they hadn't developed before. Constantly editing the engine to perfrom the functions they wanted. Things like the "choreographed combat" was a big sticking point before launch and probably cost a lot of time and money to develop, especially if they ran into issues with it. The gear system may not seem like a massive undertaking, but if you were in beta you know that they kept overhauling the design in the months leading up to launch. That means you were effectively paying entire teams to be almost purely dedicated to the gear system for months. How many iterations of companions did they go through before they abandoned using customization kits to determine role?

 

Its always tough from our end to see where the money was spent on a final product. So much of that money gets "lost" to design aspects that never make it to launch.

Edited January 24, 2013 by Tumedus