Bad news for future english Sonic game voices...

[Anarchistguy]

Hello ,

Someone over at sonicanime.net e-mailed to Ryan Drummond (The voice of Sonic The Hedgehog since Sonic Adventure) about him getting fired. It seems it's true.

Here's Ryan's reply:

"Hi Iain!
Thanks for writing in. I wish I had happier
news to tell you, but I don't.
The original voice cast for the Sonic games
HAS BEEN replaced by the Sonic X actors.

I am NOT leaving
Sonic's voice by choice. Here is an excerpt from
the AUGUST 2005 newsletter that will be up on
RyanDrummond.com sometime by the end of the
month. Thought I'd give you a sneak peek since
you were nice enough to write in.
Read on...

************************************************
Last thing to mention this month is all for the
Sonic the Hedgehog fans out there. A lot of you
have been emailing in and asking about whether or
not I’ll be doing Sonic’s voice for the new
“Shadow the Hedgehog” game, etc. Well, here’s a
news flash on that and a true insight to how this
business works (and sometimes works against you).

After hearing some rumors on the internet and so
forth about how the game had already started
voicework (or in some cases was already done), I
emailed my contacts at Sega to find out what the
deal was. I got the following facts:
Many of you remember what happened with the
whole “Sonic X” television show. Please read all
about it in the July 2003 newsletter. In short,
4Kids was really inconsiderate and cast it
without me, not caring about what the fans
thought or about product continuity. Well, all of
a sudden, Sega decided that product continuity
WAS important to them starting with this new
Shadow game. So, WITHOUT TELLING ME, they have
*replaced* me as the voice of Sonic with the
fella who does Sonic’s voice for the Sonic X
show. I was only told after it happened. My Sega
contact told me that they thought it would be a
good idea that from now on that Sonic’s voice
remain the same in the game and the non-Sega
cartoon series. So after FIVE YEARS of providing
the voice of Sonic, I was let go without a word
or an explanation (until I went looking for one).

Now I have no ill-will towards the new voice.
I’ve heard him. He does a fine job. And he’s just
an actor like me trying to make a living, so good
for him! I DO, however, have issue with Sega for
having no grace in letting me go from my
position. That’s life, you could say, but you
know, in MY life, you treat people with respect.
And I believe five years of giving my all to the
little blue hedgehog (and to all the fans!)
deserved a little more respect. So Sega, goodbye
and good luck. Sounds like you’ll get along fine
with 4Kids when you do business that way.
*************************************************

So that's the story. Spread the word. Sorry it
doesn't have a happier ending. In my opinion,
Sega does not care what the fans think, because
they figure the fans will buy the games and the
products no matter who's doing the voice. If you
feel so inclined. Write them and tell them what
you think and feel. Let your voice be heard!!

THANK YOU SO MUCH for your wonderful support.
You have my deepest gratitude.

~Ryan Drummond"

So there you have it...

[ThirdMarioBro]

I'm so mad over this I could puke. Goddamn 4Kids voices in the games is just plain WRONG! I am seriously considering boycotting all future US Sonic games in favor of the Japanese ones at this point. Sega had to go and ruin a good thing. They just HAD to fu*k Sonic up one last time.

[Hannah]

NO

OH GOD NOOOO


SHADOW TT_____TT


~cries over how shadow has to have the voice of an old man~

[愛]

Guess what, kids? What else is new! This crap has been happening for so long now, I don't even let it bother me anymore. Sonic's been played over and over by bigwigs who don't care about what the consumer thinks, and it's tiring to even think about it. I haven't bought a Sonic game since SA2, anyway, but I'm hoping to buy the new Shadow the Hedgehog game if TMB is right about it. Voice acting hasn't played a major factor in my purchases, anyway. It's aggrevating to hear bad voice acting, but since FFX, I've gotten used to it.

And by the way...



















....I killed Shadow.

[Hannah]

....I killed Shadow.

...? I dont get it T_T

[ThirdMarioBro]

Killed Shadow...

Oh, and I can confirm this now. I sent Ryan an email myself to see if this was all true.

Originally Posted by Ryan Drummond

Hey Lucas!
Thank you, brother. That was real nice of you
to say. And that means a lot to me coming from
someone who's been a fan as long as you have.
Kudos to you for standing up for what you believe
in. I appriciate that.
Sorry so short, I've got 1500 emails about this
in the last 24 hours and I'm really trying to
reply to each one individually. Sonic fans
deserve that. Everyone has been so supportive it
makes a hedgehog proud.

Take care,
Ryan

Now I'm really fumed at Sega. Cooperate assholes from hell.

[Dr. Doom]

I HATE the voices in that show >_<

[Kid Icarus]

Well, I knew it was only a matter of time until Sega did something incredibly stupid... again.

I swear, at times they're worse then Nintendo with this stuff. 32X anyone?

[Krang]

Originally Posted by Gwgtrunks

I swear, at times they're worse then Nintendo with this stuff. 32X anyone?

The 32X had potential (and a few good games), it was just released at a bad time.

Anyway, although I've never seen Sonic X, I know that most (if not all) of the 4Kids VAs are really bad, so I'm sure they use the same inappropriate casting and overexaggerated voices as always... I have no idea why they would use those voices to replace the ones they already have.

[ThirdMarioBro]

I know why.

$$$

I miss Ryan Drummond already. Hell, it's like if Nintendo suddenly changed Mario's voice to some brooklyn bronks plumber. It'd kill the personality we know. This just sucks so badly.

[Barkworm]

Originally Posted by Krang

The 32X had potential (and a few good games), it was just released at a bad time.

Besides, wasn't it painfully expensive?

[ThirdMarioBro]

It was (like $200 I think), and it had a poor launch lineup, though I still believe to this day that Knuckles Chaotix never got the respect it deserved. It's a damn good (albiet slightly buggy) game that will never see the light of day again simply because Yuji Naka dosen't care for it and left it out of all the compliations.

[Krang]

Originally Posted by ThirdMarioBro

It was (like $200 I think)

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it started out at $179, but it eventually went down in price.

and it had a poor launch lineup, though I still believe to this day that Knuckles Chaotix never got the respect it deserved. It's a damn good (albiet slightly buggy) game that will never see the light of day again simply because Yuji Naka dosen't care for it and left it out of all the compliations.

I agree, that game was great, and so was Tempo. The 32X also had a pretty good port of MKII.

[ThirdMarioBro]

Yeah, the Genesis/32X ports of fighting games always seemed to turn out slightly better than their SNES counterparts. I don't really know why, but it was cool.

[GK Punk]

Man the MK2 on 32X may still be the best port of the game ever. (Not counting the Arcade compilation, since that is the Arcade game)

[ThirdMarioBro]

That port was damn legendary. I don't know how they got it so good, but it showed the 32X had power.

[Dane E5R]

...

Sega... What's happened to you...? You're not the company I fell in love with. TMB, can you PM me Drummond's E-mail address so I can send him some love? I won't be able to live with myself if I don't drop him a few words.

[The Stryker]

Scuse' me while i jam this Knuckles brand screwdriver in my ear.

This sucks

[Jo269976]

NNNOOOOO!!!!!

ok folks November '05 is officialy the worst month ever, so many crap things have happened

[Barkworm]

Ooooooooold!