Hollywood Talent Cheaper Than CG Cutscenes

Hiring a boat load of celebrities is cheaper than creating computer generated, StarCraft-esque cutscenes, says EA, but how do they go about choosing the actual stars?

“The casting for this game and for our previous game, C&C3, was kind of a collaborative effort between certain members of the development team as well as PR and marketing.” says Ajami — who explains that there was a “four-tiered filter” in place when evaluating whether or not actors fit the game.

“One, of course, is that we’re always after big-name Hollywood stars. And you see that a lot in our game,” says Ajami. “We also look for people who kind of have geek cred that satisfies certain members of our audience.” Or who don’t mind being in something as offbeat, objectively, as Red Alert 3.

“But George Takei is a perfect example of that,” says Ajami. “He’s in Heroes, and just before that, Star Trek.”

“We also look for actors who just kind of bring a smile to your face, who might not have starred in a lot of big name movies. We think people like Peter Stormare kind of fit that role.”

Actors like Stormare, says Ajami, might not have top-of-your-head name recognition — “but you’d certainly recognize the face and point to the VW commercials or his work on Armageddon as the cosmonaut there.”

“And the last filter, of course is, this being a video game, and a C&C game, and with a 97 percent male audience, you look to have a couple of hot females in the game,” he adds. “We have that with Jenny McCarthy and a lot of our co-commanders as well.”

But all the familiar faces beg the question of budget — does the slate of actors affect revenue projections?

“Yeah,” says Ajami. “Needless to say… if you take a movie, for example, and you cast somebody big, then your expectations of that movie is going to be higher. While it’s to a lesser extent, that does apply to games as well.”

Source: Gamasutra

Last Updated: October 24, 2008