Electronics manufacturers (and manufacturers in general) make these decisions all the time. They could all make their good so technologically advanced with a ton of peripherals and features coming with it as standard, but then it would be horribly expensive and no one would buy it. Granded that is an extreme scenario but that's the gist of it - they are always having to balance feature-speccing their goods against affordability. I think Sony did the right thing considering the circumstances.
@get2sammyb Exactly. If the terms of the contract impeded him from making a living, he is still well within his right to take it to court. However, considering he benefited from a very lucrative contract as a result of signing it, as well as the fact that he can still make a living (he's not stopped from using his talent, which is acting), he wouldn't have won at all.
At the end of the day, if he didn't agree with the terms, he didn't have to sign it. He clearly did agree, as he signed it then he's subsequently fully agreed with Sony's assessment that his new role was in conflict.
I recall someone was hired to be the new voice of KITT in the recent series "Knight Rider". He even recorded KITT voiceovers for ads and the 2-hour pilot. Unfortunately, General Motors weren't impressed and forced him to "step down", leaving Val Kilmer to step in to rerecord everything with less than two weeks left till it aired.
The problem? The original guy was a well-known voiceover artist for GM's ads - the pilot (and ultimately the series) was backed by Ford, with a ton of Ford product placement, including the star car itself being a Ford.
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Re: Rumour: Sony Originally Wanted To Sell PS4 For $499 With PlayStation Eye
Electronics manufacturers (and manufacturers in general) make these decisions all the time. They could all make their good so technologically advanced with a ton of peripherals and features coming with it as standard, but then it would be horribly expensive and no one would buy it. Granded that is an extreme scenario but that's the gist of it - they are always having to balance feature-speccing their goods against affordability. I think Sony did the right thing considering the circumstances.
Re: Kevin Butler Actor Agrees Not to Promote Games for Two Years
@get2sammyb Exactly. If the terms of the contract impeded him from making a living, he is still well within his right to take it to court. However, considering he benefited from a very lucrative contract as a result of signing it, as well as the fact that he can still make a living (he's not stopped from using his talent, which is acting), he wouldn't have won at all.
At the end of the day, if he didn't agree with the terms, he didn't have to sign it. He clearly did agree, as he signed it then he's subsequently fully agreed with Sony's assessment that his new role was in conflict.
Re: Kevin Butler Actor Agrees Not to Promote Games for Two Years
Yep, this is actually more common than you think.
I recall someone was hired to be the new voice of KITT in the recent series "Knight Rider". He even recorded KITT voiceovers for ads and the 2-hour pilot. Unfortunately, General Motors weren't impressed and forced him to "step down", leaving Val Kilmer to step in to rerecord everything with less than two weeks left till it aired.
The problem? The original guy was a well-known voiceover artist for GM's ads - the pilot (and ultimately the series) was backed by Ford, with a ton of Ford product placement, including the star car itself being a Ford.