The voice actor behind "PEGI 18" says he was paid just €200

[John Elden Ring]

You may not know his name, but Richard Wells is one of the most-heard voices in video games - and now he's blowing up on TikTok.

Wells' TikTok account, which he created last Friday, now has over 17m views - mostly on his first video, where he reveals himself as the voice of video gaming's PEGI logos.

Yes, Wells voiced the "PEGI 12" and "PEGI 18" logos that play before video game trailers - and now, he's told fans he was only paid €200 (£170) years ago to do it.

"Hi, I'm Richard Wells, and I've been a professional voice actor for 40 years. I've made at least 10,000 recordings and spoken millions of words - but ironically I'm best known for just two. You won't know my face, but millions of you gamers really do know my voice - because I'm the guy who says 'PEGI 18' on all your video games."

Wells concluded by asking viewers to interact with the video if they recognised his voice - prompting more than 2.8m Likes (and counting).

"I'm absolutely overwhelmed by the reaction to that video," Wells said in a follow-up post, thanking viewers for their response. "I'm absolutely gobsmacked."

Wells has since replied with further videos answering common viewer questions - such as how much he was paid, and his thoughts on the use of AI.

"A few people have said 'do I get paid every time I say it?'" Wells said of his PEGI logos. "Well, I wish," he laughed. "I actually got paid €200 back in September 2009, and that's all the money I've ever made [from it]."

via Eurogamer

 

[Entropi]

Legend. Whenever I hear the “Pegi 18” announcement, my mind immediately goes to the E3 2013 MGSV trailer. It must be because I watched it a million times.

 

[historia]

Turned out it is not about ratings board, welp. Seem like I just rant for nowhere

I mean I would be glad to accept that much money for two words

 

[Dr Bass]

How much does the guy think he should be paid for two words?

 

[Sunrise Ninja]

 

[Box]

How much does the guy think he should be paid for two words?

This is why games never get re released, everyone wants royalties for stuff they did decades ago

 

[Satoru]

This is why games never get re released, everyone wants royalties for stuff they did decades ago

Imagine wanting money for your work, the balls on those people!

 

[Box]

Imagine wanting money for your work, the balls on those people!

Someone recorded a few lines 2 decades ago
Got paid

And still wants to continue getting paid for it?

I would love to go to my office for a day, only work once and get paid for it years later

 

[Satoru]

Someone recorded a few lines 2 decades ago
Got paid

And still wants to continue getting paid for it?

I would love to go to my office for a day, only work once and get paid for it years later

Let's try and make this clear:

• Not all people get royalties as evidenced by the person that led to this thread being created
• From those that do get royalties, not all get them in perpetuity
• Even if they do get them in perpetuity, they are only getting a fair share of the money the company is making

By your definition, the Elvis' family shouldn't get any royalties considering he only recorded a few lines decades ago, at least for most his songs. Yes, he was not a songwriter. Hell, why not cut off The Beatles' royalties? After all, they have been paid already by the record label!

Side note: I absolutely love corporate bootlicking.

Edit: Your logic is almost like 'why is this person getting free cancer treatment when my great uncle had to pay for his?' Just because you don't get something doesn't mean others getting it is unfair. You should look to get more for yourself, not for others to get less.

 

[Nomen_Nescio]

Let's try and make this clear:

• Not all people get royalties as evidenced by the person that led to this thread being created
• From those that do get royalties, not all get them in perpetuity
• Even if they do get them in perpetuity, they are only getting a fair share of the money the company is making

By your definition, the Elvis' family shouldn't get any royalties considering he only recorded a few lines decades ago, at least for most his songs. Yes, he was not a songwriter. Hell, why not cut off The Beatles' royalties? After all, they have been paid already by the record label!

Side note: I absolutely love corporate bootlicking.

Imagine comparing Elvis to some guy who said 2 fucking words decades ago and got paid 200 euros for it. This voice actor guy gives me butthurt Sapkowski vibes.

 

[Satoru]

Imagine comparing Elvis to some guy who said 2 fucking words decades ago and got paid 200 euros for it. This voice actor guy gives me butthurt Sapkowski vibes.

I could even compare Elvis to the cleaning lady that recorded her farts and sold them to 20th Century Fox, royalties are royalties and their purpose is to ensure that artists are fairly compensated (which they usually aren't) for their work.

 

[Box]

Let's try and make this clear:

• Not all people get royalties as evidenced by the person that led to this thread being created
• From those that do get royalties, not all get them in perpetuity
• Even if they do get them in perpetuity, they are only getting a fair share of the money the company is making

By your definition, the Elvis' family shouldn't get any royalties considering he only recorded a few lines decades ago, at least for most his songs. Yes, he was not a songwriter. Hell, why not cut off The Beatles' royalties? After all, they have been paid already by the record label!

Side note: I absolutely love corporate bootlicking.

Edit: Your logic is almost like 'why is this person getting free cancer treatment when my great uncle had to pay for his?' Just because you don't get something doesn't mean others getting it is unfair. You should look to get more for yourself, not for others to get less.

They got paid for it, why are they entitled to keep getting paid everytime the song is played on radios?

Imagine for a second that u need pay a license fee everytime u boot up a game.

 

[Satoru]

They got paid for it, why are they entitled to keep getting paid everytime the song is played on radios?

Imagine for a second that u need pay a license fee everytime u boot up a game.

Do you buy a new copy of the game everytime you boot it up? No.

Does the radio station make money everytime they play your music? Yes.

There's your answer.

 

[Nomen_Nescio]

I could even compare Elvis to the cleaning lady that recorded her farts and sold them to 20th Century Fox, royalties are royalties and their purpose is to ensure that artists are fairly compensated (which they usually aren't) for their work.

He probably did not sign a contract that included royalties, because no one could have probably predicted how popular it would become ( similar to Sapkowski wrongly gauging the worth and popularity of games). Comparing his work to that of "real" voice acting is laughable, even though he did a ton of voice acting and is a professional, he is not known to me, so he is probably not so prevalent is the video game industry. I remember Joe Rogan talking about doing VO for a UFC game and he said that he did it for days, because of the many variations and moves in the game, so he had to do a lot of voice acting. I would imagine his workload was quick and easy compared to someone who voices a protagonist or even a side character in a big game ( like RDR 2). Now compare the work such actors have to do, to that of what this guy did ( a few voicelines for varrious PEGI ratings). He got paid ( well IMO), for something he did in less than an 8 hour work day.

 

[historia]

Do you buy a new copy of the game everytime you boot it up? No.

Does the radio station make money everytime they play your music? Yes.

There's your answer.

So it is the dude fault for not signing with Universal, Warner or Sony for get label license for his voice then.

 

[Satoru]

So it is the dude fault for not signing with Universal, Warner or Sony for get label license for his voice then.

I'm not saying it isn't though. My original comment was the following:

Imagine wanting money for your work, the balls on those people!

To a degree, him not being able to negotiate a better deal can also be attributed to, well, a lot of people just being desperate for some cash and afraid to lose the opportunity, which is shitty, but yes, it's ultimately his fault.

Which still does not remove any merit from my arguments.

 

[historia]

I'm not saying it isn't though. My original comment was the following:

To a degree, him not being able to negotiate a better deal can also be attributed to, well, a lot of people just being desperate for some cash and afraid to lose the opportunity, which is shitty, but yes, it's ultimately his fault.

Which still does not remove any merit from my arguments.

I meant it something he did 20 years ago. Your comparasion with intellectual property law, which make no sense.

I am pretty sure somewhere still using that JIS decoder I among many worked on. Can I show up on their door and demand payments? Of course not, that is ridiculous.

 

[Yobo]

I'm sure the pegi 18 voice over makes millions. No maybe hundreds of millions

/s