GTA IV Star Vs. Online Games Actors Contracts

Should the actors of best selling video games share some of its revenues? And if so, what about the graphic designers and the composer of the game's soundtrack? This dilemma occupies Michael Hollick, who played, in the video game sense of the term, the role of Niko Bellic, Grand Theft IV lead character, yet his payroll was not affected by the video game record breaking sales. 

   
Michael Hollick and the character who brought him fame and not enough fortune

"Obviously I’m incredibly thankful to Rockstar", Hollick announced, talking to the New York Times about the game publisher who gave an anonymous actor (previously seen on Law & Order and local theatres) "the opportunity to be in this game". It is the Screen Actors Guild he asks to amend the standard employment terms, so they'll match the changing reality in which the actors of the most consumed form of entertainment receive the smallest fees. 

Currently, actors who make their voice heard in video or online games are paid the standard rate, which a result of a successful negotiation may sum to to $730 a day, and that is all. Unlike actors who participate in more traditional sorts of entertainment, they see null of the game future earnings, which in GTA IV case, reached $550 million on the first week of its release. 

On the other hand, dozens of professionals contribute to the fame of a video game, starting from the artists who design the photorealistic environments to the programmer who programs the characters' real-life behavior, and none of them get their share. And for the time being, unlike movies and TV series, video games success and failure is not laid upon the main actors or actresses 3D anti aliased shoulders. Thus, major game publishers can hire an unfamiliar actor for a lead role and pay him no more than $100,000 for 15 months of work.