Death Stranding is the big release of this month and it comes out with a star studded cast including some of the most popular actors in TV and cinema right now, including actors from The Walking Dead, James Bond, Star Wars as well as the likeness of Oscar winning director Guillermo Del Toro. This comes off the back of Kojima's last game where Keifer Sutherland was in a major voice role and the likeness of Dutch actress Stefanie Joosten was used as Quiet. The game also comes with a star-studded soundtrack with big names in the music industry like Bring Me The Horizon, CHVRCHES and Alan Walker contributing to an EP.
Also coming out this month is Jedi Fallen Order, which utilises the face of actor Cameron Monaghan as the main character of the game. A few years ago Call of Duty also "cast" Kevin Spacey in the game, as well as Kit Harrington in Infinite Warfare more recently. Andy Serkis also worked on Enslaved with Ninja Theory, however it wasn't really his likeness in the game and it was a more traditional voice acting role it seemed.
For a game director like Kojima who likens his work to film, I can see why the prestige of working with well known actors must be really appealing, as well as for companies like Activision you could get people interested in your Call of Duty game that might not normally be a fan, such as Game of Thrones viewers when Kit Harrington was in the game. However what are your thoughts on this becoming more prevalent in the industry?
Whilst I can see the appeal of getting the likenesses of characters like Luke Skywalker in Star Wars games for instance, I'm not a huge fan of what Kojima is doing in his games. I found Keifer Sutherland replacing David Hayter as Snake to be entirely pointless as it seemed to lose a lot of what made the character great. All we knew about Death Stranding for a while too was that it was going to have the likenesses and performances of all these big actors in them rather than focusing on the gameplay or what it was bringing to the table.
Whilst I can see the appeal of having famous celebrities faces in the game, I really did like that videogames were holding out against having Hollywood A-listers in the game. I love that characters in games are entirely original creations, allowing designers to make entirely new iconic characters rather than just having the likeness of an actor shoved onto a characters role. Call of Duty's cameos in particular just seem like pandering to an audience (eg. House of Cards or Game of Thrones viewers) trying to get a big name into the game, and as much as I respect Kojima's work it can seem like he's just casting models or actors in his game because he wants to hang out with them, or have bad games have resources poured into them and selling just because a celebrity has been cast.
If AAA blockbuster game releases just end up being just like film promo cycles with appearances by the actors on chat shows etc. Around release, it will create more of a buzz around the game for sure, but at what creative cost? Many iconic character designs couldn't be done half as well if you're having to add screen times for actors in, and it may even influence what time of game you're making if a big actor is forced in.
I definitely prefer the Enslaved/Andy Serkis approached to the Death Stranding/Norman Reedus approach, because really apart from marketing, what value is having Mads Mikkelson in your game really adding?
What are your thoughts on this? Am I just getting worried about nothing?
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