Okay Okay Okay! I give up everyone else likes it.
However, personally I think they could have done a lot better.
I would be curios to know how Bethesda actually chooses their voice actors.

I can't imagine Max Von Sydow costing nearly as much as the likes of Patrick Stewart, Sean Bean or Liam Neeson. It sounds great and I bet it was cheaper :happy:

OH NOES!!! THEY SPENT A COUPLE THOUSAND OF THEIR MILLIONS OF DOLLARS!!! THE WHOLE GAME IS RUINED!!!

Seriously. Why does it matter in the first place? They're already spending more on designing the game itself than how much it costs to cast Max and other celebs, so you could blame the "non-unique dialogue" just as easily on that.

I really despise this argument, because people just don't know how much money Bethesda has to use when making video games. And how much they're still getting from sales every day. It's almost to the point where money is a non-issue in some ways.

His voice is very good. It has a lot of character. As for being old, what's the problem with that? Did you expect everyone in the game world to be 25-30 years old?

If you're interested in his latest works, see the 2010 remake of Robin Hood, starring Russell Crowe. I hadn't planned on watching one of Max's movies, but I was interested in seeing some recent action movies and there he was. He even plays an old man who reveals things about the past to the hero and helps guide him, albeit in a somewhat eccentric manner.

He's voice is amazing, ok tell me howe should the voice have been in your eyes? tell me so I kan laugh att you suggestion

Bonus fact: Max von Sydow played King Osric in the 1982 film version of Conan.

In fairness though, liking his voice or not is totally subjective. I just can't think of whose voice would better suit the game.

Little movies like Shutter Island and the latest Robin Hood. :dry:

I can't imagine voice acting for a videogame pays that well though, even for an "A-list" celebrity.
It's basically just one day recording, but I agree that lot's of people would probably do it for less or even for free.

It probably also has to do with status, Skyrim and the industry in general gets more attention when famous people are involved.
Just look how well that Brutal Legend sold, and everything about that game was horrible.

You obviously need to take an economics class if you think money is a non-issue these days. Companies have budgets and constraints just like you and me. They don't have endless amounts of money to spend on things, if they did half of hollywood would be doing voice over work for every single video game created.

Money is an issue, it will always be an issue. If Bethesda were to tell us how much they actually paid Max compared to the other local talent, you would see that they are paying him much more than what he'll bring to the game.

Come on everyone, all together now;

The power of Christ compels you!






Seriously. I love Max Von Sydow. I keep picturing Esbern as a King Osric type.

Other great rolls;

Doctor Kynes
Emperor Ming
Brewmeister Smith
Blofeld
Director Burgess
Sir Loxley
Dr. Jeremiah Naehring

In my opinion that voice is pretty cool.Esbern will be our mentor and voice of Max von Sydow really fit with this role.

Its already confirmed that there will be more variety of voices for Skyrim. I'm guessing like 2-4 voices per race, then add Max. And I have to agree with Rahu X, one major voice actor isn't going to take even close to the whole budget.

And why was this topic even started? Anyone would have known this would turn into flaming.

Still, even with their budgets, I'm sure designing the game and other various things costs much more than casting Max von Sydow. In fact, I'm sure besides hiring local talent for NPC voices and other various small tasks, the casting of celebs is probably the cheapest option compared to everything else.

Just tell me, why is your first blame on the celebrity casting rather than the dev team itself? Or heck, even the greatest enemy to all video games, time?

I loved his voice! And besides I think he's voicing a major NPC

May his passing cleanse the world.

http://gamrreview.vgchartz.com/sales/636/the-elder-scrolls-iv-oblivion/

Well, for the 360 alone so far Oblivion has sold 3.4 million copies. At 60 dollars a game thats approximately 204 million dollars gross. And thats 360 sales alone, so there are still PC and PS3 sales too. I'm willing to bet that they did not spend anywhere near that amount making oblivion, much less hiring patrick stewart. So, they were profitable, by a lot. Now I certainly hope that it wasn't patrick stewart that brought in all the sales but I can say that A) the game will be profitable and B)Without some really really solid statistics, you have nothing that shows me that there is any significantly profitable advantages to NOT using celebrity actors as opposed to using them. Sure there are semantic reasons as in you don't want them or you want more voices, but also remember that this game is their vision. You wouldn't tell hollywood not to use certain actors. This is the same. Bethesda developers have a certain vision for certain roles and they want them played out in a certain way. And Patrick Stewart played the emperor they way they wanted it and Max Von Sydow will play Esbern just the way they want him to.

lol you better find a way to make peace with Max because he sems to be your number 1 friend in the game. Or you may turn the volume down everytime he speaks

I find that funny because Todd's a big Conan fan. :rofl:

I can think of no one better suited to play the aging, possibly last surviving, Blade destiny chooses to train the - also possibly last surviving - Dragonborn in all of Tamriel, in the harsh wastes of Skyrim, than the man who played the voice of Vigo the Carpathian in Ghostbusters II. And no, I'm not kidding. In my opinion his voice exudes character, accent, and texture. To me it sounds grizzled, old, powerful, authoratative, and distinctly fitting for Skyrim somehow.

We don't know what his pay grade is for voice work. I'm sure they go through a casting process as they would for any other project, videogame or otherwise. Did it occur to anyone that they simply chose him because they liked his work on the character the best? It's not like he's THAT well known an actor to anyone not born in the 1980s or earlier. Certainly less well known (at least to today's gamers) in my opinion than Sean Bean or Patrick Stewart.

First off, I had no idea it was Max Von Snyder (still not impressed).
Secondly, the cost of celebrity voices in Oblivion meant the voice budget was blown and all the other voices are the same person.'s repeated for all the other NPCs.
Variety IS the spice of life.
Every voice should be a different person for a much better immersion in the game.
and by the way MONEY has Everything to do with a game - it's their ONLY reason for making the game in the first place and every penny saved is a penny earned.

Too bad they didn't go with Woody Allen for that role . . .

:RUNS!: :wink_smile:

You should post that in the Ask the Devs thread and see what they tell you. Money is the only reason INVESTORS invest in a game studio such as Bethesda but it is not the GAME DEVELOPERS motivation

You really think bethesda is going to hire 200 voice actors for the game? Not going to happen, ever.

Money won't be an issue for BGS as their in a much different situation then they were in 2006. Skyrim will be fine voice wise, heck who knows Max Von Sydow might not even be the biggest voice actor star in the game. Bethesda might have a card up their sleeve and drop a nuke at E3 or some other event saying certain person is in the game and we all go ape crazy. :celebration:

Max von Sydow played Jesus in The Greatest Story Ever Told in 1965. Check out the Pics on IMDB http://www.imdb.com/media/rm459642880/nm0001884

The guy has a tenor to his voice that resonates in your chest. He could make anything sound awesome. He should have voiced the Emperor in TESIV too.