AestheticGamer1Many were surprised and mixed with feelings at the news that Silent Hill 2 & 3 would have redone voice acting for the upcoming Playstation 3, “Silent Hill Collection.” However, thanks to former James Sunderland voice actor and motion-capture artist, Guy Cihi, he has shed some light on why they are doing this change by answering a question on his Facebook:
“Sure, I’d (take on the role of James again) if they asked but they won’t. The problem is that Konami has already been notified they owe me residuals for all previous re-uses of my mocap and voice recordings. Changing the voice won’t excuse them with the next release because my mocap is still all in there. (Sorry, Konami, I own those rights!) I’ll get around to seeking compensation through the court one of these days. I simply don’t have the time for it right now. Anybody who has ever sought justice through the court knows how much money and energy it takes. Hope this doesn’t bum you guys out….It’s just the way it is.”
So it seems the issue here is that the voice actors and motion-capture artists weren’t paid their dues for the subsequent re-releases of the Silent Hill games onto other platforms and might not have the best business relationship with Konami thanks to that. On one hand, it’s going to be interesting hearing a new vocal cast for the characters, and one only needs to point as far as the Resident Evil franchise for a horror series that regularly changes it’s voice actors. On the other, these characters we define and characterize in our heads partly through their voice and there is worry that maybe changing the voice actors will have some long-drawn effect on how we view these characters, or the change of performance may make them not even feel like the same characters. We’ll continue to bring you news on the collection as it develops.
