The bar is high for videogame voice acting in 2024—it's hard to accept anything less than excellence after the likes of Baldur's Gate 3 and Disco Elysium and so many other games have elevated their scripts with powerful performances. But back in the '90s, that was far more the exception than the rule, a topic PC Gamer recently discussed with veteran game developers during a roundtable interview.
"One of the hurdles, first of all, was the disdain that they had for videogames, like 'I'm a real actor, but whatever this is, it's gonna be silly,'" said Jordan Mechner, creator of Prince of Persia and the adventure game The Last Express.
