Skyrim's Todd Howard: Actors come to us
"You will all be very impressed."
Video games have penetrated "mass consciousness" to the such an extent that Hollywood actors now approach developers asking to do voice over work.
According to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim developer Todd Howard, agents now encourage their clients to work on video games - whereas before they weren't considered "cool" enough.
"Video gaming overall have reached this level of mass consciousness," he said last week at Bethesda's video game showcase.
"And with a lot of these actors, there is a cool factor now to doing a video game. It's not about the money. It's about, 'It's really cool and my agent tells me it's going to be good for me now instead of bad for me.'
"You had an actor say, 'This is great! I want to do it.' The agent said, 'You don't want to be in a video game.' Now the agent goes, 'You should do it. Now everyone plays them. They love them. This is really cool. Let's do it.'
"I notice a lot more people doing it and they come to us."
Bethesda has form when it comes to working with high-profile actors.
Skyrim predecessor Oblivion featured the voices of Patrick Stewart, Lynda Carter, Sean Bean, Terence Stamp, Ralph Cosham and Wes Johnson.
Post-apocalyptic role-playing game Fallout 3 listed Liam Neeson, Ron Perlman and Malcolm McDowell on its VO credit sheet.
"We've been lucky with the game's I've done in particular, where you can say, 'Liam Neeson would be the perfect father, what are the chances?' And he says yes," Howard continued.
"We're fortunate in the games we make and how they're thought of in the industry that actors want to do them a little bit more, honestly."
Now, with Skyrim, Howard promised fans an equally eye-catching cast.
"We've Max von Sydow [Skyrim's narrator], but he is not the only one.
"I think you all will be very impressed. It's not just to put some name for marketing. It's, this person would be great."
Tom saw the game and reported his impressions in Eurogamer's TESV: Skyrim preview.
