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1. Keanu Reeves, „Cyberpunk 2077,‟ and What Stars Bring to Video Games With Keanu Reeves starring within the status release of Cyberpunk 2077, it‟s worth pondering what exactly it's that superstars bring back video games. Is it simply a gimmick? Or do celebrities bring larger profit margins to video games that otherwise wouldn‟t are as popular? Celebs in video games grew in popularity round the mid-1990s, as graphics improved and you'll fully tell you were truly watching the image of a superstar – or just a famous character. Years before, Atari tried their hand at bringing E.T. into home consoles everywhere, and albeit that game didn‟t get dumped into an unmarked grave, it still would are hard to differentiate E.T. himself from any of the opposite cast of characters. While the groundwork was laid by the likes of Mike Tyson‟s clock out , it wasn‟t until the 90s that graphics were ok to really feature celebrities.

2. Arcade games like Michael Jackson‟s Moonwalker let players fight while playing as a well-known star. shortly after, gamers got the prospect to become 007 walking around in Pierce Brosnan‟s skin (albeit a blocky version of his skin) within the beloved GoldenEye for Nintendo 64. Playerscould pretend to be MI6‟s top agent while getting frustrated to without stopping by Natalya. However, despite playing as Bond if they wished, players were still subject to text blocks rather than the particular dialogue. Pierce Brosnan may are one among the foremost notable celebs initially lending their image to a computer game , but he was faraway from the last. Video games began to move faraway from the most avatar being the celebrity and moved towards superstars becoming an NPC that gamers could play alongside. THE HOLLOW SHELL VS. THE KNOWN CHARACTER When Spyro hit PlayStation, the famous dragon was originally voiced by actor Carlos Alazraqui then , eventually, Tom Kenny, who is most notably known for voicing SpongeBob SquarePants. the first game, released in 1998, sold about 1 million copies during the vacation season and went on to sell about 5 million within the US alone. When the series was rebooted, it now featured famous folks like Elijah Wood as Spyro and David Spade as Sparx. However, the celebrities didn‟t hold the maximum amount clout with the audience as some may have expected with the new game selling almost also because the original series, with no discernable boost from the familiar voices. Many games utilize the “Silent Protagonist” because the playable character in order that gamers can determine how the character is played. Developers have said that Link has never spoken in order that players can put their own personality into the character and makes it desire they need more ownership. Whether gamers are playing as Link, Gordon Freeman, or Chelle, regardless of who is playing the character, anyone can desire it‟s their own thoughts and actions. This creates a catch-all ambiguity within the avatar.

3. However, this also creates a divide between the kinds of playable characters. The player has put a personality into anavatar versus characters that already come preset with a personality. during a sense, when a player plays a star avatar they're role-playing with a pre-set skills sheet. PlayStation was one among the primary systems that would almost handle the entire design of a star in-game. Activision continued their incredible work and scanned Bruce Willis into the sport Apocalypse. Now, rather than playing as, say, an innocent elf-boy from Hyrule, gamers were controlling Bruce Willis himself, complete with full voice performance and action. there's virtually nobody on the earth who hasn‟t heard of or a minimum of seen a movie with Bruce Willis in it. Therefore, people know what to expect within the character. They‟ll “Go bent the coast, get together, have a couple of laughs” and ultimately serve a hot plate of butt-kicking with a side of sarcasm. It was from here that celebrities in games started appearing more, though still not always as playable characters.

4. MOST NOTABLE CELEBS IN GAMES 2019 brought us Norman Reedus starring in Death Stranding. albeit fans were initially hoping for an additional Silent Hill installment starring Reedus and directed by Guillermo Del Toro and designed by Hideo Kojima, they still got the Walking Dead superstar for this game. This wasn‟t a personality that Reedus had pre-established, but rather became someone that gamers unraveled the more they played the sport . Going back a couple of yeas, Mark Hamill reprised his role because the Joker, whom he first voiced in Batman: The Animated Series, within the Arkham games, much to everyone‟s delight, though this was less of a star addition the maximum amount because it was just carrying over an incredible performance as an iconic character. many of us who watched Batman: The Animated Series series had become conversant in Hamill because the voice of the Joker, and it appeared like a natural fit have him and Kevin Conroy (returning as Batman) play these roles again.

5. Many celebs featured in Disney‟s animated films have come to try to to voice work for the dominion Hearts franchise, albeit it‟s only for a couple of lines to assist Sora out. Seeing as Kingdom Hearts is an insane mash- up of both Final Fantasy characters and virtually all of the Disney universe, it‟s impressive if they get anyone who just sounds similar, much less folks like Frozen„s Idina Menzel, Kristen Bell, Josh Gad, and Jonathan Groff. At an equivalent time, Haley Joel Osment has voiced Sora for therefore a few years that he virtually grew up with the character because the games progressed. Meanwhile, Jeremy Davies, who will forever be immortalized within the 2018 God of simulation because the character Baldur, was quoted as saying that he had been trying to interrupt into video games over the previous couple of years. this is often an actor who has starred in huge projects like Saving Private Ryan, Twister, Lost, and Justified. It‟s remarkable that an actor, with numerous top-tier credits, was struggling to interrupt into the computer game industry though it‟s not hard to ascertain why. The gaming industry has been inundated with new projects which may take years to finish . A majority of roles have gone to notable voice actors who have worked within the industry long before stars from the silver screen joined in. With years of talented actors like Nolan North (Uncharted), Troy Baker (The Last of Us), Jennifer Hale (Mass Effect),

6. Tara Strong (Final Fantasy X), and legend John Dimaggio, there's a good swath of performers that gamers have come to understand and love. Having film actors enter stage can often still risk feeling more sort of a ploy to urge people to shop for more video games than it's about expanding the universe or the story. NOT ALWAYS A GIMMICK If there‟s one thing gamers know, it‟s having the ability to uproot a gimmick from a mile away. Some have criticized the gaming industry for using celebrities as gimmicky tools to sell more copies of the sport both when it involves directly casting them or maybe “borrowing” their image. deem example the strange issue with the primary Last folks game where Ellie looked suspiciously like Ellen Page. Page wasn't happy about the similarities, especially since she was already performing on another Sony-developed computer game at the time. Eventually, Neil Druckman of Naughty Dog changed the likeness of the character to reflect that of the actress, Ashley Johnson, who actually performed the role. However, it wasn‟t the controversy over the character that sold over 1,000,000 copies within the first week of its release. The story and therefore the production quality is what drew gamers into the zombie shooter and sold numerous copies. The computer game industry is now far surpassing the movie industry with the additional boost coming from the pandemic. People are not any longer flocking to the theaters, but instead to their consoles, and therefore the trend was already heading that way before the pandemic hit. In a piece of writing breaking down the recent boom within the computer game industry eSports blogger myboosting.gg reported: “The global video gaming industry is predicted to be worth roughly $159 billion in 2020. This surpasses the box office film / the film industry revenue by a simple 4 times, AND almost 3 times the music industry has built up so far .” Many games utilize the “Silent Protagonist” because the playable character in order that gamers can determine how the character is

7. played. Developers have said that Link has never spoken in order that players can put their own personality into the character and makes it desire they need more ownership. Whether gamers are playing as Link, Gordon Freeman, or Chelle, regardless of who is playing the character, anyone can desire it‟s their own thoughts and actions. This creates a catch-all ambiguity within the avatar. However, this also creates a divide between the kinds of playable characters. The player has put a personality into an avatar versus characters that already come preset with a personality. during a sense, when a player plays a star avatar they're role-playing with a pre-set skills sheet. PlayStation was one among the primary systems that would almost handle the entire design of a star in-game. Activision continued their incredible work and scanned Bruce Willis into the sport Apocalypse. Now, rather than playing as, say, an innocent elf-boy from Hyrule, gamers were controlling Bruce Willis himself, complete with full voice performance and action. there's virtually nobody on the earth who hasn‟t heard of or a minimum of seen a movie with Bruce Willis in it. Therefore, people know what to expect within the character. They‟ll “Go bent the coast, get together, have a couple of laughs” and ultimately serve a hot plate of butt- kicking with a side of sarcasm. It was from here that celebrities in games started appearing more, though still not always as playable characters.

8. To say this all boils right down to money would be a disservice to what's actually happening. Yes, the gaming industry is riper than ever with funding, but this also means more heavy hitters are getting involved also . Consider the boom of streaming services. It took a flash for them to urge off the bottom but now fans are seeing movies like Project Power being made under the Netflix banner and starring movie stars like Jamie Foxx and Joseph Gordon Levitt. an equivalent is occurring on a wider scale with the computer game industry. Not only are video games the right place to start out a blossoming franchise, but they‟re also becoming more interesting and sophisticated in plot and aesthetic. Games, and particularly AAA titles, are going beyond the scope of traditional video games, and now talent is sought out that's on an equivalent scale. This doesn't by any stretch mean that celebrities should be playing every role or taking up roles that we‟ve grown to understand via the first voice actors. If Hanks somehow took over the voice of Mario, this is able to be a very weird transition, and doubtless one that I‟ll spend an excessive amount of time trying to imagine. But suffice to mention , the brilliance of Charles Martinet as Mario are

9. some things gamers became familiar with the maximum amount as they need in hearing Mark Hamill voice the Joker. All in all, celebrities in video games are not any longer gimmicks to urge people to shop for games for the straightforward reason that gamers don't gravitate to those sorts of selling ploys. The games are already selling well as they're , because the source material is becoming more expansive. Still, the talent that actors like Norman Reedus or Keanu Reeves bring back a project can often help elevate the vast source material even further. KEANU GOES PUNK In a recent interview with Collider, Senior Quest Designer Patrick Mills explained how Cyberpunk 2077 was already rooted during a lot of source material. Yes, of course, one among the main influences to the genre was

10. the film Blade Runner, which has gone on to inspire many cyberpunk- themed stories, but Reeves‟ character was also derived from a pre- established character from the Cyberpunk role-playing games. Said Mills, “Johnny Silverhand may be a character created by Mike Pondsmith for the first Cyberpunk 2020 book. He appears during a series of short stories, which we reference within the game.” It‟s extremely likely that Cyberpunk 2077 would have sold even as many copies albeit it didn‟t have Keanu Reeves in it. The lore has already been established, as Mills notes, and therefore the game has been getting attention since it had been announced. However, with Reeves‟ name attached, it only increases the probabilities that the franchise will continue beyond just the one game. The Cyberpunk franchise has already been solidly established, but attaching big names only leaves room for more expansion within the universe. With Reeves involved, there's the likelihood not just for sequel games but even a movie or streaming franchise with a beloved actor already found out during a leading role. This also leaves open the likelihood of other stars entering the Cyberpunk 2077 universe, very similar to the Conan O‟Brien Easter egg in Death Stranding. The sky‟s the limit for the franchise, and Keanu‟s involvement is simply the primary stepping stone. Cyberpunk 2077 are going to be released on December 10