cod, far cry all cage games
i would not say it's a trend but some big licences tend to do it lately. (not sony first party thought , even if i could Christopher Judge as a famous voice but i'm hugely biased)
Yeah, but, again, it seems very few and very far in between if you look at the amount of games released without a "celebrity" included.
It is most certainly NOT the main reason why gaming budgets as a whole (as in the entire industry) are high, though I'm sure it's a pretty penny of a cost.
If every AAA game comes out with A-list actors, then okay, maybe there's a solid discussion to be had. But we've had a number of games out this year alone that do not boast an actor in their games.
And if there was a discussion to be had, I think we're going to need actual details of the salaries provided to all listed actors in games to judge whether it does indeed take a huge chunk on the production cost because I doubt they're paying such a substantial amount upwards of millions and millions for them to join in.
RDR2 cost $540 million to make, and correct me if I'm wrong, didn't have any big named celebrities in the game.
TLOU2 is assumed to cost around $100 million or so (no celebrities involved), while
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain cost roughly $80 million - Kiefer Sutherland included.
Unfortunately there's no information on GOW (2018) production costs, but the third game cost $44 million; so one can assume the fourth game is at least double that as Corey Barlog has stated that Sony gave them a tight budget to work with.
I would agree that Norman Reedus ($65 million networth) probably cost a shit ton though, as his salary is listed as:
- Monthly: $1,333,333.33
- Weekly: $307,692.31
- Daily: $61,538.46
While Giancarlo Esposito's networth is $8 million with a $65 Thousand Per Episode salary.
So again, I just don't think celebrities is where all the money goes towards. That would be budget suicide, or at best, a gimmick to pull in the audience such as Death Stranding.