Roger Craig "Consoles" Smith new voice of Sonic & The God Damn Batman!

[SweeCrue]

Hey, I found some leaked footage of Arkham Origins featuring You Have My Permission to Die Zone

 

[Tani Coyote]

A bit late to the party but wow. Smith's really getting around... not only Captain America, but also Batman.

 

I think it's safe to say he's a rising star in the voice acting industry with all these major roles he's landing.

 

I knew there was a reason I was watching so much Batman / DC stuff the last few days. I must have felt this news in a psychic manner.

Edited May 31, 2013 by Ogilvie Maurice

[tenchibr]

I had a feeling voicing Sonic would look nice on his resume.

 

Oh wait, he got the gig because of his Ezio voice? Nevermind.

[Tani Coyote]

I had a feeling voicing Sonic would look nice on his resume.

 

Oh wait, he got the gig because of his Ezio voice? Nevermind.

 

Either way... I think Mr. Smith might be on his way towards being a common presence in voice acting. Both mature and childish roles alike. He seems to be a rapidly rising star in both animation and gaming.

[Crash]

He is a great VA. He isn't all 'HOOOHAAAAS' and 'WOOOOOAHS', if anyone has watched Regular Show, you can see how great he is at having a wide variety of different voice styles. He will do fine as Batman, it will be a challenge for him, it's a new type of role for him, but he'll do well.

[Tani Coyote]

if anyone has watched Regular Show, you can see how great he is at having a wide variety of different voice styles.

 

I actually had to go watch a Regular Show episode with him in it. It's actually impressive that he voiced both the new protagonist Thomas and the antagonist in the same episode. I could tell Thomas was him right away but if I hadn't looked it up I'd have never guessed the villain was him.

 

Overall I'd say I'm quite interested in seeing what Roger gets up to... will he become the Dan Green of the newer Sonic games, doing side roles as they come up?

[Crash]

I actually had to go watch a Regular Show episode with him in it. It's actually impressive that he voiced both the new protagonist Thomas and the antagonist in the same episode. I could tell Thomas was him right away but if I hadn't looked it up I'd have never guessed the villain was him.

 

Overall I'd say I'm quite interested in seeing what Roger gets up to... will he become the Dan Green of the newer Sonic games, doing side roles as they come up?

 

I won't be surprised if he voices one of the guardians, he's a better voice actor than Dan Green, so it would be hard to tell.

 

Yeah, as I watched that episode, I was surprised that he voiced the villain, I thought it was him, but I had to check the credits.

Edited May 31, 2013 by Crash

[Chaos Warp]

With all of the recent work Roger has done it's safe to assume he's joined a union of some sort. I'd say when his Sega contract expires in 2015 he'll be gone for good as Sonic.

Or.

 

Or.

 

 

They'll keep him on and let him work while still keeping his union. SEGA's trying to piss off as little fans as possible, it would make sense not to change the cast again as the majority of people like them. 

Edited June 1, 2013 by Chaos Warp

[Komodin]

With all of the recent work Roger has done it's safe to assume he's joined a union of some sort. I'd say when his Sega contract expires in 2015 he'll be gone for good as Sonic.

 

Uh... whoopie? I'm not sure why you're trying to pass off this possibility as being a good thing, considering I actually like his voice work in the Sonic series.

[Chaos Warp]

I was merely stating something. I didn't post anything else.

 

If Roger is in a union now (which is most likely due to his recent Disney works) Sega won't be able to pay him. That is exactly why we didn't get Drummond back in 2010.

See my previous post. 

[Chaos Warp]

Both Sega of Japan and America were more than pleased with Ryan's re-audition. They were very excited to have him on board again. What stopped it? Money. They don't care about fans when it comes to the budget. No one does.

That was then, and 2015 is in the future. They might change their policy by then. And there's also the possibility that even though people were pleased with Ryan's re-audition, they might have been more pleased with RCS's, and the union thing was the straw that broke Ryan's proverbial camel back.

We can't really judge because we don't know the specifics of the situation, or if things will change when the contract ends.  

[sonfan1984]

There's a huge possibilty that they will replace RCS in 2015 but if they ever go back to Ryan Drummond then Ryan better sound fucking AMAZING cause I'm not going to cut the guy any slack.

[Chaos Warp]

Our very own XD375 knows the details. Roger was an afterthought when Ryan couldn't go through with the deal. Roger at the time was non union and in the VO world that's fantastic for studios because they can pay them whatever they want. To Sega this means a cheap VO that costs pennies to them.

 

Roger has recently gotten a ton of VO work with major studios such as Disney and Viacom and they're very union friendly. Roger still has an obligation to be Sonic until at least 2015. If Sega renews the contract they will have to pay union wages which is pretty expensive but it's fair to the voice actor so they can feed themselves. What Roger gets right now for Sonic probably doesn't even fill his gas tank for a month. If he's getting work like this he'd be a fool to terminate his union just to keep up as Sonic and Sega will most likely not fork over the dough to pay him and the rest of the cast's union fees.

 

That's Hollywood.

Well..........................how common are non-union voice actors as opposed to union ones? if SEGA's smart, they'll have to start paying union ones if they want any sort of quality. 

[Badnik Mechanic]

What stopped it? Money.

 

Really? I thought it was his Union as apposed to money.

 

Typical Union rules.

 

* You cannot work X number of days per month.

 

* You cannot work on before or after a certain time of the day.

 

* You must be given X ammount of breaks for X period of time.

 

* You must notify the union of the following *insert a huge list of things you wish to do*

 

* You must notify and have permission of the union to do things with their artist such as interviews or any other things.

 

It's not 'Oh it's just money and Sega doesn't care about the fans' /insert a ten year old argument about voice actors.'

 

Because it's not as simple as saying 'oh money is the problem.' No it isn't. Just some of the rules alone like 'You cannot work on certain days or longer than certain hours' that alone is ridiculous for some corporations/entertainment industries. You need the artists to be flexible in order to get the work done in a timely manner thats efficient as well as cost effective.

 

Furthermore, where exactly has this 'Roger has a union now!' come from? You have absolutely no idea as to what union he is or isn't apart of certainly not what's written into his contract or what has to be in there as per any work he'll get. He's obviously contracted to do lost world and it's more than likely he'll be doing the next one too, but... because he's now batman, that means he won't do any more Sonic work... what?

[Badnik Mechanic]

 

The fact of the matter is that the budget comes before the fans.

 

What are you trying to say with this?

 

That we wanted Ryan over Roger? That there was a massive demand for Ryan to come back? There wasn't. The last time anyone really cared about this was back when we got a trailer for Sonic Riders and Jason was the voice of Sonic.

 

Just look at this topic for an example. It's one of the first places online that people actually started entertaining the thought that the 'franchise changing news' was new voice actors. On page 3 of this topic, people started entertaining the possability of new voice actors, it's then on page 7 that someone says they want Ryan back, I'm now on page 11 and other than you. Nobody else has said that they wanted Ryan back.

 

So where does this 'they don't care about the fans over money' come from since by all accounts, the vast majority of the fans didn't particually care if Ryan came back or not?

[Shane]

Or.

 

Or.

 

 

They'll keep him on and let him work while still keeping his union. SEGA's trying to piss off as little fans as possible, it would make sense not to change the cast again as the majority of people like them. 

 

I don't think Roger is working under the union, but if he was in the union and SEGA really wanted to keep him on, they'd have to ask the rest of the Sonic cast to either quit or join the union themselves. That's how these projects work.

 

And in extension to that, the actors' other jobs would be in jeopardy if they did join the union. I'm no Naruto fan, but I think the best example would be this: If Kate Higgins joined the union to continue as Tails, she wouldn't be able to be Sakura on Naruto anymore. Naruto isn't a union job.

 

So yeah, if Roger joined a union, he wouldn't be playing Sonic anymore.

[tenchibr]

You know, I find it hard to believe that SEGA pays that little to VA's...

 

Sure, you cannot expect Roger to be like "bling bling to your motha", but he has to get something somewhat decent, like maybe a flat sum of $20,000? If he does that plus other roles like Chris Redfield or Ezio, he's doing damn fine.

[Shane]

You know, I find it hard to believe that SEGA pays that little to VA's...

 

Sure, you cannot expect Roger to be like "bling bling to your motha", but he has to get something somewhat decent, like maybe a flat sum of $20,000? If he does that plus other roles like Chris Redfield or Ezio, he's doing damn fine.

 

Ryan wouldn't have even costed nearly that much per game.

 

EDIT: Just IM'd my guy for clarification. Ryan was up against about thirty other actors when he successfully auditioned. They chose Ryan until his cost became an issue a while later.

Edited June 2, 2013 by XD375

[Tani Coyote]

They chose Ryan until his cost became an issue a while later.

 

It's really interesting to see how much politics there is in the employment process, really. With the better voice direction today I think he'd do marvelous if he ever returned but... I suspect we'll never see that. 

 

Speaking from a business family's perspective, I understand unions are a MASSIVE hurdle to business, and do not blame SEGA for trying their best to avoid hiring members of such. Especially when they have financial difficulties and have to make a bunch of concessions to gain one guy's talents.

 

As for Roger being paid pennies - well it makes sense. The more roles you have, the less you can charge per role. It's an economy of scale, basically; one of the reason 4Kids' VAs were hired was they already had so many jobs SEGA didn't have to pay them that much, as memory serves.

 

In all likelihood Roger won't be continuing as Sonic come 2015; every other voice actor lasted only about 6 years. SEGA's pretty good at canning people by this point. Mike Pollock was fortunate, but overall I think we've determined axing actors is the norm for SEGA.

Edited June 2, 2013 by Ogilvie Maurice

[Kuzu]

See, and that disappoints me because I like associating voices with their characters. It helps define them for years to come, but if Sega just up and recycle voice actors like this then I ask just what's the point? Why go through all of the trouble of hiring VA's when you're just gonna replace them?

[Autosaver]

Solution: Get rid of Sonic's voice.

 

Huehuehue

[Crash]

I'd love to see Mike Pollock and Kate Higgins stay. RCS is amazing, I love his work, but I want MP and KH to stay. I'd be surprised if Mike Pollock re-auditioned but he seems to love the role, so why not let him keep it? In Japan, they've had the same Sonic since Adventure, I think we need the same Eggman!

[Doctor MK]

Roger will be attending this month's MCM Expo in London to promote Batman: Arkham Origins

 

http://www.sonicstadium.org/2013/10/roger-craig-smith-to-attend-mcm-london-october-expo/

 

Seeing as it's so soon after the release of Sonic Lost World here in the UK though, no doubt he'll be willing to talk about that a little bit too!

[SuperBrandon]

I don't really like Roger Craig Smith voicing Sonic. I prefered it when Jason Griffith and Ryan Drummond voiced him.

[Willsy]

I like Roger's Sonic, in fact he's probably my favourite. He just seems to fit the character really well.