March 8th, 2016 
Mark You may have noticed in the Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End beta this weekend that Uncharted 2: Among Thieves bad guy Harry Flynn returns as a multiplayer character. But you might have also heard his voice and wondered if it was the original actor, Steve Valentine. As it turns out, it’s not–and some aren’t happy, prompting Naughty Dog to make an official statement on the matter.
As DualShockers noticed, Valentine posted a lot about it on Twitter recently. He said he was never asked to contribute (a point Naughty Dog debates) and isn’t very thrilled with the current state of the relationships that exist between voice talent and game developers/publishers. Here is what he had to say:
Many asked, so; Since the beta, no one’s approached re #Uncharted4. Not gonna happen chaps.But can’t tell u how grateful I am 4 the love:)
— Steve Valentine (@Stevevalentine) March 6, 2016
It would be easy to discuss the realities of the voice over business, and point fingers and complain. But it doesn’t get actors anywhere.
— Steve Valentine (@Stevevalentine) March 7, 2016
Acting, and voice acting is a tricky business. Private business, that shouldn’t be discussed on forums by execs. very disappointed tonight
— Steve Valentine (@Stevevalentine) March 7, 2016
I’ll say this. This is my business it’s how I support my family, my kids etc. worked my entire life at it. Some execs, don’t respect that
— Steve Valentine (@Stevevalentine) March 7, 2016
It takes a lot of skilled people to put a project.. It game.. Together. I respect every single one of them. Sadly it’s not reciprocal
— Steve Valentine (@Stevevalentine) March 7, 2016
Actors have a history of being offered ‘take it or leave its’. And as much as I loved the work. I had to ‘leave its’. Over a YEAR ago
— Steve Valentine (@Stevevalentine) March 7, 2016
It’s a shame that private talks didn’t stay private. But the fans deserved to know. I WOULD have loved to do it.
— Steve Valentine (@Stevevalentine) March 7, 2016
It really comes down 2 how much fans care about who is in their games. If they buy & play no matter what, we’ll always be interchangeable.
— Steve Valentine (@Stevevalentine) March 7, 2016
Didn’t want to discuss this so publicly but there u go. If it’s ok with u guys I’d like to leave it at that.#lifestooshortforcorporatecrap
— Steve Valentine (@Stevevalentine) March 7, 2016
Naughty Dog community strategist Arne Meyer responded to the drama in a post in the PlayStation forums. He said Naughty Dog did in fact contact Valentine, but a deal could not be reached for him to return as Flynn.
“I don’t have great news, so I just wanted to be up front about the voice acting decision process,” he started off. “Looking into it, we *did* contact the original voice actors for the characters when we were looking to cast and record voiceover for the multiplayer characters in order to have them reprise his roles–this included Harry Flynn.
“This was our priority and we proceeded to try to do that across the board. I can’t speak to why anyone would feel otherwise. In this case, we made the best effort to make it work, but ultimately we couldn’t strike a deal that both sides were satisfied with. Sometimes that happens in this industry, among many others.”
Meyer went on to say that Naughty Dog appreciates fan feedback but made it clear that it’s not going to make some kind of 11th hour effort to bring Valentine in to record some lines.
“We did our part to make it work and it didn’t work out when it should have, when we were casting the roles and negotiating agreements,” he said. “Unfortunately, the opportunity had long passed us by, even back in December, and we won’t be re-recording any multiplayer voices.”
It’s been a long time coming for Uncharted 4. The PS4-exclusive was first scheduled to launch in 2015, but was later moved to March 2016 and then again to April 2016 before its latest delay to May 2016.
An open beta was held this past weekend to stress-test the game’s multiplayer servers. You can watch some footage from the beta in GameSpot’s video above.
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