Everyday Gamer

As reported by Yahoo! Gaming News, the voice actor for GTA IV’s Niko Bellic, Michael Hollick, only made $100,000 for 15 months of work.

“It’s tough, when you see Grand Theft Auto IV out there as the biggest thing going right now, when they’re making hundreds of millions of dollars, and we don’t see any of it,” Hollick told the Times. “I don’t blame Rockstar. I blame our union for not having the agreements in place to protect the creative people who drive the sales of these games.”

The pay discrepancy stems from the fact that Hollywood has yet to make provisions for electronic media, including video games or the Internet. Instead, actors get paid standard Screen Actor’s Guild day wages for their work (roughly $730), leaving them out of the lucrative residual loop should a property become financially successful. When it becomes as successful as GTA IV, an actor could be out literally millions.

Ouch that stings! Hollick also feels he is owed residuals for his voice used in online and television trailers. With media being shifted to the Internet in the form of viral ads, blogs, podcasts and videos, perhaps it’s time for the unions to catch up to the 21st century.

[Source: Yahoo!]