Is the “in-house voice actor” culture in the Japanese video game industry really going to disappear? The competition between employee voice acting and professional voice actors!

In modern times,Choose professional voice actors for game characters It has become an industry practice that almost all major games willVoice performance Regarded as an indispensable component. However, looking backThe early development of the gaming industryThe introduction of professional voice actors is not common.

Many companies are just casual from withinSelect a few employeesTo undertake voice acting tasks, these voice actors are known in the industry as“Internal voice actors”.

X hot search: “Internal voice actors”

Recently, a senior Japanese game producer named Takashi Kuno mentioned “in-house voice actors” on social media, which has sparked interest and discussion among many netizens. This gaming veteran shared his personal experience of the voice actor culture within the company, allowing everyone to glimpse the past game dubbing methods.

The Rise of Voice Actors in SocietyDue to limitations in early game storage capacity and budget constraints. Under the technological conditions at that time,The audio capacity of the game is very limitedThe dubbing content mostly consists of sporadic lines or sound effects. Instead of hiring a high paying voice actor company,Why don’t we just have company employees take on the role of dubbingThis is both cost-effective and efficient.

And these “part-time” voice actors are often not professional, but instead bring more authentic and friendly voice performances, which has also become a characteristic of early games to some extent.

Kouno Takashi mentioned that he wasADKDuring my time at the company, I participated in the development of the classic fighting game series “WORLD HEROES”.

The first generation of this series was mainly dubbed by in-house voice actors, and it was not until the development of the second generation that it was introduced due to the company’s decision-making requirements Professional voice actor.

According to Jiuno’s description, the company owner heard about a competitor after returning from a business trip in Osaka SNK’s next fighting game will feature professional voice actorsSo he immediately decided not to fall behind and requested the team to start hiring professional voice actors from then on.

This decision also marks the gradual end of the era of voice actors within the company.

Jiuno also specifically listed the voice cast of the first generation of “WORLD HEROES”, among which Mr. Shimizu and Ms. Watanabe from the audio department Even including the company’sEnglish conversation lecturer RasputinThey all participated in dubbing work.

In fact, not only the sound performance, but also many of the scene shooting and live action scenes in the early stages of game development were completed by internal staff, and these behind the scenes stories brought a lot of fun to players.

In these precious historical memories, although the voice acting style of the in-house voice actors is relatively rough, it is precisely this Expression with original flavorGive those old games a nostalgic touch.

In today’s rapidly developing technology, the method of employee dubbing has almost disappeared, replaced by increasingly sophisticated and professional sound production.