Troy Baker is one of the most recognizable voice actors in the world, having lent his vocal talents to some of the most iconic characters in video game history. One of his most famous roles is the cold and callous Joel Miller in The Last of Us and The Last of Us 2, but he's also brought an array of other characters to life, including Simon in Spider-Man Miles Morales, Bruce Banner in Avengers, Magni in God of War (2018), Delsin in Infamous Second Son, and Rhys in Tales from the Borderlands. Troy Baker has gathered a lot of goodwill from fans over the years, but a recent foray into NFTs brought down a lot of criticism on his head.
When Troy Baker announced he was joining the Non-Fungible Token, or NFT, landscape, many of his fans immediately expressed their disappointment. He stated that he was partnering up with Voiceverse NFT, which seeks to sell NFTs stored on the Ethereum blockchain--NFTs that come with access to an AI-generated voice program that can replicate a specific voice.
On the 90th episode of his podcast Play, Watch, Listen, Troy Baker addressed the controversy and specifically the criticism aimed at him. There, the voice actor tried to explain his reasoning for getting involved with Voiceverse NFT. According to Troy Baker, he didn't decide to partner with Voiceverse NFT because of the NFT component. Instead, he was interested in the concept of helping independent creators get access to new resources, including his own voice acting skills.
According to the podcast, Troy Baker isn't sure how he feels about NFTs. What captured his interest was the idea of a platform that would be able to bring valuable resources such as professional-quality voice acting to independent creators. He went on to state that his decision to accompany the announcement with art of himself reminiscent of other NFT artwork was "the stupidest thing I could have done." However, he appears to be standing by his original intentions, even if this type of company could put voice actors out of business.
Troy Baker stated that while he doesn't know where things will go from here, and he's been very clear about that to Voiceverse NFT, he's also not too concerned about the company hurting the voice acting industry. Apparently, he believes that being able to help independent creators gain access to resources they wouldn't be able to otherwise afford is worth the trade-off. He even goes so far as to say that losing out on a job by giving someone else one is just fine with him. However, he does note that he was a bit too antagonistic when previously attempting to handle the situation.
Source: IGN