I am not talking about voicing a bunch of characters, but the PC, the origin characters have already been voiced. You are trying to conflate the entire cost of VA for 2 or 3 variations of the PC.
Quite the contrary. I actually mentioned the existing scope of voice acting in the game precisely because whatever issues it causes are already abundant even without full voice acting for the PC. This conversation drifts a bit between issues with voice acting in general and voice acting for the PC in particular; the information that I cited in the first paragraph relates to the latter since it concerns individual pay. My personal position is that cost-based objections to PC voice acting would be better directed towards the preponderance of voice acting throughout the game in general.
Not to mention, VA does not affect the cost of other departments like development such as level design or character design.
Presumably, Larian has a finite amount of time and money and must make choices on how to allocate their resources. I would expect the amount that they budget for particular features, such as voice acting, to limit the amount they have available for others.
This is also not even taking into consideration that the PC ALREADY talks during travel in the world, so it is straight out strange that he/she doesn't in cutscenes. All the other companions have great facial expression and voice, and the PC (which seems to be the issue for some in regards to RP) looks like a half dead mime Vulcan with no expression at all.
Cinematics are in a tough spot where custom PCs are concerned. The more that they sink into giving a custom PC specific reactions to events, the more they cut into the freedom to define the character (which for me at least is the main point of choosing a custom PC). A good example of this is a Lolth-sworn drow or cleric of Bhaal looking horrified at the death of the tiefling child when you first meet Kagha. I'd prefer first person dialogue or less cinematics for this reason, but if those aren't on the table, I can't say that I consider a lifeless mannequin to be worse than an animated impostor.
Also, hourly rate for VA is totally different than day rate. The shorter amount of time you hire them, the more you pay. Average Day rate is around $1500/day.
$1500 a day seems quite a bit different from the $300 a day that you estimated before (so much so that I suspect that I'm missing something here). Do we know whether the voice actors for this game in particular are working per hour or day, or is the latter more likely for specific reasons?
I mean there is video from actual VAs that discuss rates on YT, as well as on web pages.
True, I linked to two websites myself, and I'd still like to see your sources.
It just seems all to common that people that do not want it, try to resort to the old argument "well it costs to much" which is BS today. This is not 10 years ago.
It isn't clear at this point exactly how much it would cost to fully voice a custom PC for BG 3.
