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Following SAG-AFTRA’s “Do Not Work” order for Mega Man: Dual Override, Ben Diskin, the English voice actor for Mega Man, has announced that he will no longer voice the character and will not be returning for Dual Override.
Via Ben's Bluesky:
With a broken Blue Bomber heart, I am no longer the voice of Mega Man.
I was asked to return for Mega Man: Dual Override, but only on the condition I work without the protections of a union contract.
I was told there are "full A.I. protections in place that guarantee in writing that [my] voice will never be used for A.I. development" but was also told "with certainty, from [Capcom], that the project will not go union."
While I certainly appreciate the acknowledgement of the concern around AI, working without a contract I can realistically enforce isn't something I can risk.
The only way to enforce non-union contracts like this involves personally taking giant companies like Capcom to court and suing if I thought they'd used AI. I don't have the mental, emotional, or monetary strength to survive a protracted legal fight.
In my heart, I want to believe Capcom would never use AI...
But in my HEAD, I'm aware that basically every major corporation is looking to incorporate generative AI to save money.
The video game industry is facing record layoffs and huge amounts of uncertainty.
I need a union contract to feel safe.
(Also, as an aside, I don't think it makes sense to strike for over 11 months to get enforceable AI abuse protections and then turn right around and go back to work without them.)
I truly wish Capcom was at least willing to speak with SAG-AFTRA about doing this game union. I expressed that I'd even be willing to work on a LOWER-budget union contract if it meant this flipped. It genuinely wasn't about the money for me.
It's been an honor voicing Mega Man in Mega Man 11, the best-selling game in the series' history and watching Mega Man reclaim his rightful place as a gaming icon.
I hope Mega Man: Dual Override is even more successful than 11 and that everyone enjoys all the hard work the devs are putting into it.
"Good luck out there, Mega!"
I just wish I could have been there with you.
Smart move.
ReplyDeleteBen knows what he's worth, I love his va work and I hope that whatever he does next he has a lot of fun!
ReplyDeletehe doesnt have a choice this union harrasses non union workers and doesn't allow you to work non union gigs.
DeleteNot allowing union workers to do non-union work is pretty typical for any union. It's how they maintain bargaining power. What cope are you on? 😂
Delete@Jlrtenjac You'd think so, but the LA voice actors are pretty duplicitous. The vast majority of the ones you'll find in anime and Japanese video game dubs are not proper union members. They take advantage of something called, "financial core," which allows non-union individuals to work on union projects. They pay their dues in exchange for some (not all) benefits and don't have the ability to vote on things. They aren't considered proper union members.
Delete"Financial core" is extremely common amongst that part of the LA voice acting scene. Most of the negativity you'll see online regarding SAG transpired through the Genshin Impact controversy. One of the pieces that went kind of underreported in that story is that Genshin was never a union game to begin with. From day-1, it was always non-union. If you look at that game's cast, you'll find tons of prolific LA voice actors (including Keith Silverstein). Either they violated any union's most basic rule (and risk being fined or expelled from SAG) or they were never proper union members to begin with. It's largely the latter. It's why pseudonyms have died out, as they no longer needed to hide what they're doing from SAG.
The problem is that this behaviour discourages companies from doing union work. After all, what is the benefit for producers to do a project under a union contract when 99% of the talent pool actively work on non-union titles without an issue? There isn't much, which is why companies like Capcom feel entitled to ask people like Ben to work non-union. That is one of the big hypocrisies of the LA anime dub clique. They're only union members when it's convenient for them to be. They've actively been undermining "their" union's collective bargaining power for decades and get upset about sleeping in the bed they made.
@synonymous I appreciate you being more specific than "screw SAG-AFTRA, JP voice actors are better anyway".
DeleteYikes. I hope Bens successor is good.
ReplyDeleteWonder how this fares for the rest of the cast. It's going to be a bit awkward if Ben is the only non-returning actor or if in an act of solidarity none of the other actors want to return under these conditions
ReplyDeleteI hope they can at least hang on to Silverstein, he was pretty great as Wily. Not sure if he’s union or not, I wanna say no…
DeleteThe rest of the cast will also be gone. MM11 was an union project and MMDO has been hit with a Do Not Work order from SAG-AFTRA. No one is risking their union status to work on a Mega Man game.
DeleteDoug Stone voiced Light in the announcement trailer, so he's most likely still in and Keith is voicing in RE9 so it doesn't seem like he cares about the union.
DeleteStone might drop out due to the Do Not Work order. Likewise for Silverstein. The DNW is just for Dual Override, not Capcom in general, so RE9 is union acceptable. I doubt he doesn't care about the union if he was willing to go on strike for it last year.
Deletehonestly in the grand scheme megaman classic never had a consistent voice actor and the situation is shitty but sad lots of uninformed people defending this sad excuse for a "union" without any research.
ReplyDeleteSome unions are shitty, and companies don't like unions to begin with. I've dealt with enough of that "THERE'S A UNION AROUND EVERY CORNER" horse shit to know companies don't have your best interest in mind, either.
DeleteAdmittedly most of my experience with union/anti-union is retail work, rather than this sort of thing. Going by what everyone is saying, it's a lot more complicated than some of the baloney I dealt with working at a supermarket. The union there had its own issues, like a tier system that throws newer workers under the bus so seniority gets more benefits, but I still wouldn't trust a competing supermarket that's anti-union when they present it like stranger danger, but it's about unions.
DeleteYep, said it yesterday. 1-7 were fine with no VA then we got Elmer Fudd in 8. As long as the game play, art and music are good things will be fine.
DeleteHow the hell did they manage to get such a terrible VA for Dr. Light in 8, anyway? Did they pick some rando off the street, or was it an in-house developer like one of the early versions of King's Quest 5?
DeleteNo clue. PS1 and 2 era had some funny Va's. I remember Signas in X7 voiced by the same guy that voiced Alucard in the original SOTN and the narrator in the first Tenchu game. Those folks just kept getting work and no one battered an eye.
DeleteMega Man 8's English dub was done in Japan. There isn't exactly the best pool of English VAs living in Japan for obvious reasons. X4, X7 and ZX Advent are other games in the series that had their English dubs done in Japan.
DeleteDidn't X4 pull from the same pool as MM8? I remember hearing the guy who did X was kind of out of the loop on the series.
DeleteCorrect. X was voiced by the same woman who did Rock in 8. She's actually a real estate agent in Tokyo.
Delete16-20 minute mark about the VA for 8 and X4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL7fpGxK0W8
DeleteYeah, that sounds about right from what I remember. That really did sound bad - I forgor how bad Meggim sounded.
Deletei really don't mind this either... Imo he wasn't a good voice for Megaman. Megaman needs a child-like voice, like a voice that sounds around a 10, 11 or 12 year old boy. Maybe a woman might be better suited for that role. The japanese voice always nails it. His voice sounds a bit too much like a "cool teenager". I don't think he fits at all. This is the exact same issue i have with the english voice for Megaman in the Battle Network series. The tone is too different from the japanese one.
ReplyDeleteA level-headed, respectful, well articulated response.
DeleteUnfortunately, that means you’re a scab who hates unions. /s
I tend to agree. His voice would have been better suited for X who you'd imagine would be a few years "older" than Rock. The gold standard was Rock's VA in Powered Up IMO.
DeleteI disagree. Neither Rock or X should have outlandishly young or femaleish voices. X is NOT a teen or suppose to be "a few years older" than Rock in any sense (unless a few means many) he is a several century old, state of the art machine, trained in ethics and intel, explicitly made to be an ambassador bridging conscious AI with humanity and effectively landed in a leadership role as what is the equivalent of a military police force. In no sense does that convey teen or whatever people traditionally say when describing his teleological mindset/age. He is a full adult actor with fully adult responsibilities.
DeleteI will grant Rock is different and he is explicitly originally "meant" to be a little boy when light created him as Rock, but clearly that has changed, and since transitioning to Mega Man, he's been pretty hardened. He has the what? 20 or what have you games of world stake adventures under his belt..
But I can agree that I prefer the Japanese VA's typically (except for Megaman.EXE).
For me mega should be a young boy, around 10 years of age. X should be a young adult, like in his late 20s or early 30s. The english x8 voice for him was the best. Still don't like the english voice for .exe megaman.
Delete@Mark Havoc X was designed as a teenager and his initial A.I. age is 14-15, but obviously matures with experience like humans. Even his height is comparable to a teenager (5'3/160cm). In any case, the only English voice I liked for X was Mark Gatha. Showtaro Morikubo in Japanese. I can’t stand Ted Sroka, especially since Ben Diskin's Megaman sounds deeper than him, when Megaman is supposed to be modeled after a 10 year old boy. I also don't care for Takahiro Sakurai. Not only is he overrated and overused, but I don't care for his X.
Delete@Mark Havoc
DeleteOn the contrary, I’d argue Mega Man (and other robot masters) being static characters is an important plot point that distinguishes robot masters from reploids. Mega Man is a simple character by design. He always mans up when the world is in danger, always beats the evil robot masters, and always lets Wily off (besides the one time he helped him get arrested). People think that’s a flaw with those games, but it’s actually a feature, it’s how Mega Man is. He *is* still the same optimistic lab assistant from 200X, because he’s literally not capable of change.
X and reploids are different. At his very first game, X questions the means he took and mourns his losses. That’s not something Mega Man has ever done (though people like to project it on the endings of games like 2 and 7), and not something he ever *should* do (unless a game makes it explicit that he was upgraded to Reploid-level intelligence… which will probably happen after they make every possible transition game).
I don't see a voice actors presence to be important honestly when I was young I didn't even need it for MegaMan games and crudcom has made it obvious the story has never been an idea from the start or if they have to others opinions I cant say I've ever been impressed. Some say its like souls series its up to interpretation but that's just lazy with how straightforward MegaMan "could have been"
ReplyDeleteThis is the way, imo.
DeleteYeah no, as someone who also has played Megaman since the 90’s, I enjoy the addition of voice acting. This strange idea that story doesn’t belong in gaming to me is so silly, and it honestly doesn’t take away from the experience.
DeleteIt’s 2026, voice acting is the norm and one of the few modern gaming choices that breathes further life into the experience.
Yeah,. Gearz is right. This is 2026, not 1986, but it seems most humans in many ways just can't get with the times. I'm happy the days of low detailed 8-bit are long gone, MM9 and MM10 should have stuck to at least MM8 detail and sound quality, and back then, I lived the 8-bit era since NES was my first console and I predate the first MM game by a few years. Too many MM games are 8-bit as it is. I like what MM12 is doing with upping the detail, 2.5D style backgrounds, nice explosions, and voice acting, etc. I wouldn't mind the entire MM series updated with at the least graphics of MM12.
DeleteIf people don't like the remakes, they can stick to the older games, but with remakes like that, we get choice. Even better if you can switch between old and new on the fly like in games like R-type Dimensions. Like R-type Dimensions III is doing here (hope they improve the explosions though for small enemies): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hujAil1LYQA
The game doesn't need any voice acting at all.
ReplyDeleteThis isn't the late 80s or 90s. Video games having voice acting is the norm (unless you're GameFreak). Deal with it.
Deleteumm, no? the vast majority of games do not have voice acting. unless you mean AAA? which MM12 isn't likely one of.
Deletethough AI might change things, and most games could have AI voices.
Erik, give it a rest. You may not know me but we argued about this a long time ago on Twitter, we don’t AI replacing people in a creative field, the one field where human interaction, creativity & expression matters most.
DeleteKeep people attached, period. Otherwise this idea of AI replacing people is going to be a very bleak future, especially for creativity.
you're absolutely correct. I don't know you.
Deletebut AI need not replace people at all... not exactly. say tara strong, famous voice actress for many beloved characters. she'll get old and those voices will eventually be lost. she can also only do so many jobs at once.
if she were to use AI, training it on her voice extensively, and licensing out the tara strong AI, she could be in more projects for cheaper, making her voice much more accessible in indie games, and games can be fully voiced rather than having major lines only.
you're not getting rid of people, nor the creativity, you're just doing what the assembly line did. you'll have voice technicians that will get the voice to do what it wants, and the VA's licensing their voice out to multiple projects simultaneously.
AI won't replace people, it's a tool for people to use. people who are truly replaced by AI are really just replaced by other people who can do more, which happens with every technological innovation.
There probably will be voice acting in any case at least to a limited extent, either from some other Americans doing it or keeping the Japanese voices like in X6. It's too early to know. If nothing else, I have no problem keeping the Japanese dubs while I read the text, which is better than none. If there are legit cutscenes MM8 style or X4 style, then it is a must in such segments.
DeleteAlso if AI does it better and cheaper and doesn't hurt consumers with pesky strikes, quit or show up late, and operates 24/7, then it should be used and in fact only encourages its use if they are gonna misbehave and refuse to do their job holding consumers and the company hostage (that also promotes consumers to go elsewhere to get what they want or need). In the future, creativity would just be strictly a hobby. Ideally we would have a mostly automated economy and change our system gradually to detach income from labor (free people from the rat race without losing income) as such things lose meaning over time but you still need consumers to keep it going. There are multiple ways to do that and combo of ways, but that isn't a convo for here, but further automation is the only way I see such systemic changes being forced, and with competition, AI and robots will lower costs of living in the long run relative to incomes.
DeleteSo good, I hope we automate as much as possible in the economy. Global and local competition will force it anyhow. Many people already are creative for free anyways, also in youtube videos. People who are creative will keep being creative like they are now, even if the idea of doing it for money won't make sense at a certain point in the further future. Many already do it for free, whether it is a hobby or fan project, like fan made Dragon Ball manga I watch on youtube or free fan mods for games. Not bleak at all; just need to change our primitive system new deal style and have all new econ paradigms as we have done before but that will dwarf previous changes (likely gradually implementations as automation of the economy won't happen all at once even if faster than historically). There won't be a choice as to prevent collapse just like we did in the new deal.
I will leave it at that with no further details here on the specific changes as to not go too off topic or derail or have arguments about it, but I will say I welcome robots and AI and all forms of tech and systemic changes that match. We live in interesting times. People will just need to evolve their mindsets and get with the times and open their minds to new tech and new systems. I see way too much hate on AI. That needs to end and it will end as people get used to it like any other tech, and it is crucial to also accelerating medical tech and might even allow me and many others to see anti-aging gene editing in my life time and much more.
From what I remember mm11's voice was annoying. And always support unions. The only reason your wages go up, the reason you have only an 8 hour day and the only reason you have a weekend is because union people fought and actually died to change working conditions. Never forget things like the Battle of Blair Mountain.
ReplyDelete