Video game voice overs have become an essential part of the gaming industry, enriching characters and storytelling through immersive performances.
In 2024, spending on consumer video games was an eye-watering $58.7 billion (€55.8 billion) in the US alone.
For all kinds of fans, it’s not just good graphics and great gameplay that keep them engaged; it’s exceptional voice acting that also pulls players in and keeps them locked and loaded into their game.
Now, as games continue to evolve to feature more realistic visuals and complex narratives, the demand for skilled video game voice actors has skyrocketed.
In this article, we’ll explore the history of video games and the rise of video game voice overs during the past two decades.
We’ll also examine the current state of the industry and where it might be headed next.
Finally, we’ll cover everything you need to know about hiring a professional voice actor for your own game.
What Were the First Video Game Voice Overs?
Video games have been around for longer than many people assume.
What counts as the “first video game” is a matter of judgment.
British professor A.S. Douglas developed a digital version of tic-tac-toe in 1952, but the first arcades and home video games didn’t pop up until the 1970s.
Pong is often considered the first video game, but most early games had no use for voice acting.
In fact, video game voice overs didn’t become common until games evolved to support a more immersive storytelling.
As video games became more complex, providing realistic experiences, the demand for skilled voice actors began to grow.
Onscreen characters began to look like real people, and video games started offering a more cinematic narrative with relatable characters and detailed storylines.
Since then, the gaming industry has experienced relatively sustained growth, and video game voice overs have become more accessible, even for small development teams.
As games gained even greater popularity, developers started hiring famous actors such as Liam Neeson (Fallout 3), Keanu Reeves (Cyberpunk 2077), and Samuel L. Jackson (Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas).
Other actors, relatively unknown before they stepped into the video game sound booth, have become celebrities in their own right.
British voice actor Paul D.
Jennifer Hale, Troy Baker, Laura Baily, and British voice actor Paul. D are all high in-demand video game voice actors who are now synonymous with wildly successful games such as Baldur’s Gate (Hale), The Last of Us (Baker & Baily), and BAFTA-winning Disco Eylisum (Paul D.)
The pressure for realism in modern video games is such that many of the actors are thoroughly put through their paces.
For instance, some games, including 2019’s Death Stranding, even utilize motion capture to create likenesses of real actors.
Norman Reedus, Mads Mikkelson, and other well-known actors appeared in Death Stranding through motion capture.
With video games using more voice talent than ever, individual games can now include thousands of voiced lines.
Released in 2015, The Elder Scrolls Online contains an estimated 150,000 voiced lines from 77 different actors.
What Do Video Game Voice Actors Do?
Different video games have different kinds of voice acting.
Some development teams prioritize voice overs for certain important characters or sections of dialogue while communicating other information through text.
Others feature full voice acting for all characters—it ultimately comes down to your budget and creative vision.
An immersive video game experience depends on the suspension of disbelief, and voice actors play a crucial role in creating an engaging atmosphere.
Paul, who voiced Morell the Zoo Cryptologist in the above-mentioned Disco Elysium alongside countless other video game voice overs says:
An important element of voicing video games is knowing your character well, and knowing where and what they are doing when you are recording.
You must commit to it. You must believe what you are saying, even though most times in games it is something pretty out of this world or impossible in real life!
In other words, voice actors need to give the player the impression of existing in a unique world rather than simply playing a game.
Some development teams focus on talent while cutting voice acting budgets by having actors cover multiple roles.
While The Elder Scrolls Online has 77 voice actors, there are far more than 77 unique characters.
Many characters act as generic vendors or townspeople, mostly there for world-building rather than contributing a developed personality.
In these contexts, it may be enough for a voice actor to record a few simple lines to make them believable.
When one actor is responsible for several characters, developers usually try to make sure each in-game character is kept away from the others.
If an actor portrays a blacksmith in one town, they should avoid recording lines for any other character in that town.
Separating characters in-game is the easiest way to maintain immersion with a limited number of voice actors.
On the other hand, major characters in big-budget video games often go through the same kinds of character development seen in movies and TV shows.
Games can be dozens of hours long, so voice actors need a distinct, memorable tone that fits the style of the game and matches the character they’re playing.
Some games, such as Divinity: Original Sin II and Disco Elysium, rely on narrators to add life to the story and keep the player engaged.
Narrating a video game is more like recording an audiobook than portraying a character in a movie or TV show.
What Skills Do Video Game Voice Over Artists Need?
Some skills transfer between conventional acting and voice acting, but there are also some critical differences.
1. Consistency
It takes time to adjust to the experience of recording lines in a studio environment.
Note that some video game recording sessions take place individually, leaving the actor without much context or continuity for their performance.
This is very different from live-action content, where the actors physically act out the scene.
If you’re not used to it, repeatedly reading out the same lines on your own can become tiring and monotonous.
Top video game voice over artists sound just as convincing on the 100th take as they did on the 1st.
2. Cold Reading
As a voice actor, you may not have much time to read through a script before recording it.
Cold reading, or performing a script while reading it for the first time, is a critical skill for any voice actor.
In some cases, voice actors may be presented with lines out of order or out of their natural relation to other lines from the scene.
Video game voice artists need to be able to read the script, understand their role, come up with a style, and successfully perform that style—often all in the same session.
3. Physical and Mental Fitness
The human voice is surprisingly frail, particularly for voice actors who make a living through speaking.
Voice acting is just like any other physical activity.
To strengthen and maintain their voices, actors need to warm up before sessions, minimize straining sounds like screams and whispers, and get enough rest both between takes and between acting jobs.
Just like conventional actors, voice actors can have trouble performing if they’re dealing with stress or other mental or emotional challenges.
Self-care is critical for delivering strong performances under pressure and maintaining a good work-life balance.
It’s important to recognize the role of mental health in professional performance, both in voice acting and in other fields.
4. Vocal Range
Vocal talent is critical for all forms of acting, but it’s particularly important for video game voice overs.
After all, the voice is the only thing a voice actor can contribute to a character in a video game.
If you’re used to conventional performing, it may feel odd to play a character in a recording studio.
It takes imagination, attention to detail, and a distinctive voice to convincingly portray a character convincingly through sound alone.
Like any other form of acting, video game voice acting requires a unique set of skills that don’t always transfer from other areas.
Voice actors can have trouble transitioning to live-action, and the same is often true in the opposite direction.
5. Technical Skills
Voice actors were once expected to audition in person, but most acting jobs are now posted and filled online.
On one hand, this makes auditions more accessible to people living outside of major cities.
On the other hand, it also introduces a new challenge.
Since you won’t be auditioning in a professional studio, you’ll need to create a professional-quality recording space in your home or office.
This requires soundproofing, acoustic treatment, and a fair amount of equipment.
You’ll also be responsible for sound editing—turning raw recording files into audition-ready samples.
Sound processing techniques like compression, EQ, and De-essing are crucial for a well-balanced recording.
Even if you have the most beautiful voice in the world, you may be passed over if your recording doesn’t sound professional.
This is particularly relevant for protagonists and other critical characters who play major roles in the game.
Some voice actors work primarily on video games, while others take different kinds of projects as they come.
As mentioned earlier, we recommend working with professional video game voice actors to achieve the best results.
Motion capture can be an incredibly effective way to make video game characters appear more realistic.
As you can see in the video below, actors in The Last of Us performed scenes through motion capture along with recording their voices.
Of course, motion-capture actors will need to do several more things than conventional voice actors:
Match the body type of the in-game character
Physically act scenes while wearing equipment for motion capture
Perform stunts and other physically demanding tasks (portraying a fight, for example)
On the other hand, voice actors play a very different role in Disco Elysium.
The game is heavily story-driven with very little action, putting significant pressure on voice actors, like Paul D. to bring characters to life with unique personalities.
For a project of this scale, only voice actors of the highest calibre with proven experience in video game voice over would be able to deliver the necessary emotional depth of the story.
As a straight-laced counterpart to the player’s character, narrator (or a non-playable companion character), Kim Kitsuragi keeps players on track in the game, interacts with other in-game characters, and advances the narrative.
Jullian Champenois, who voices Kim Kitsuragi, maintains the calm, thoughtful tone that perfectly matches the character’s demeanor.
It’s a performance that contrasts openly with the fast-paced voiceovers that many people associate with modern video games.
And for that reason, it underlines the fact that there is no “best” type of voice actor—the right actor for a given project depends on the required skills.
Kim Kitsuragi would have been out of place in The Last of Us, and the characters from that game wouldn’t have fit in Disco Elysium.
Effective casting involves finding an actor who fits the role you have in mind.
These are just a few questions to consider when looking for video game voice actors:
Does the actor have experience with similar games?
Does their style match the tone of the game and the character they’ll be playing?
Do they fit the project’s budget?
You can also get a sense of a voice artist’s capabilities by listening to their demo reel.
Demo reels are designed to showcase the speaker’s voice talent and demonstrate their flexibility in different roles or styles.
If they sound like a potential match, reach out and ask them to audition using your script.
This will help you understand how they would fit into your unique project.
It’s almost always worth comparing a few different options before committing to a particular actor.
Localizing Video Game Voice Overs
There are many different approaches for localizing games for different countries or regions.
The most straightforward option is to simply translate the script and onscreen text and add subtitles for dialogue.
Though this method is often used in movies, it doesn’t always provide the best experience for audiences.
Live-action movie characters are played by real actors, so it’s awkward to replace their voices with a voice over in another language.
It can lead to clunky local translations and incorrect lip-syncing (think of the B-rated martial arts movies of the 1970s), which ultimately reduce immersion.
This approach might not work for video games either.
Video game visuals are all digital, so it makes more sense to re-record voice lines for different languages.
Known as “localization,” this can go beyond basic translation.
For example, rather than just translating dialogue into standard English, a developer might create separate localizations—one with American voice actors for the US market and another with British voice actors for the UK.
Similarly, Spanish-language content may need to be localized for both Latin American and Spanish dialects.
This step isn’t always necessary, but it’s worth the investment if it leads to additional sales.
Your approach to localization will ultimately depend on your budget and how much you want to invest in different versions of your game.
Casting multiple sets of voiceover artists and recording their voice work for every target language can be an expensive and time-consuming process.
Still, it’s the best way to generate interest and make your game more appealing to an international audience.
Major Trends in Video Game Voice Overs
The introduction of video game voice overs caused a major shift, but video game voice acting is itself changing every year.
This is particularly true as video games grow more popular in new countries.
Video games have often been developed in English and exported in that language worldwide, but there’s also a growing demand for voice actors in other languages.
1. Localization
Localization is a rapidly expanding field for developers and publishers who want to find an audience in new markets.
Of course, localization is also involved in bringing games from other languages to an English audience.
Another important development is the growth of demand for female and minority voice actors.
While men still make up a majority of gamers in the United States, more games in recent years have started focusing on female protagonists and major characters.
Ashly Burch, one of the most well-known female voice actors in video games, has appeared in popular anime like Steins; Gate and Attack on Titan, as well as a number of games including Horizon Zero Dawn, Life Is Strange, and The Outer Worlds.
2. Mobile and Cloud Gaming
Both consumers and developers are responding to new technologies and new ways of playing.
Mobile gaming, for example, is projected to generate nearly $100 billion in global revenue in 2024.
This expands the audience and leads to new types of games, including those that are free to play and earn money through micro-transactions.
Similarly, cloud gaming enables users to stream games to their devices rather than processing them locally.
While Google Stadia didn’t live up to expectations, it’s only a matter of time before cloud gaming takes on a larger share of the market.
Conventional games aren’t going away, but cloud gaming is expected to grow more than 4X from 2022 to 2027.
3. Virtual Reality
Virtual reality gives gamers the impression of existing in a 3D world, offering 360 degrees of interactivity and far more immersion than conventional gaming.
VR is still a relatively new field, so it will take time for the technology to be perfected.
As with any other developing technology, there is already a positive feedback loop driving VR growth.
More audience interest leads to more investment from developers and publishers, who then attract even more consumers with their new games.
At this point, most VR games are simply recreations of existing games in a VR space.
As the market grows, developers will have more opportunities to explore unique experiences that are only possible in virtual reality.
The Apple Vision Pro is an exciting sign of where the gaming industry is going.
Just as realistic 3D games introduced new opportunities for voice actors, VR and AR will have a major impact on the future of games.
Nobody can say where the industry will go from here, but video game voice actors will continue to play a crucial role.
We’re excited to see how creators, publishers, tech developers, and gamers combine to shape the future of gaming.
Are you creating your own video game and need video game voice over actors?
You’ll find some of the best, highly experienced video game VO talent on the Voice Crafters platform.
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