Michael Hollick, the voice of Niko Bellic in Grand Theft

Image Credit: Michael Nagle for The New York Times

Michael Hollick has voiced the most well-known character in the year’s biggest blockbuster game when he took on the role of Niko Bellic in Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto 4. Now Michael was paid for his work and at a little over union scale he took home roughly $100,000. Not nearly as much as a famous-faced screen actor would have netted for a large role such as this, and Mr. Hollick will most likely never see another dime for his work. No residuals or royalties will come his way at all even after his voice will be heard by millions in online campaign and television commercials due to the current structure between union contracts and the game developers and publishers themselves.

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With Grand Theft Auto IV being released on April 29th it stands to be the largest game in the series with help from its extensive music and audio tracks. With that in mind I thought it would be fun to take a look at some past GTA voice over recording sessions.

This video takes us all the way back to the turn of the century when recording for GTA Vice City began. Vice City is known for its enormous cast of big name actors providing voices for the game and developer RockStar just happen to have a camera rolling as they recorded their characters. Please keep in mind that this was an M Rated game and the language may not be suitable for everyone.