With Mouse: P.I. for Hire out now and the Nintendo Switch 2 port of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle coming next month, Troy Baker is the talk of the town again, and his comments regarding the potential creation of a studio and video game of his own are among the juiciest bits we’ve gotten from the veteran actor.
Eurogamer’s Victoria Phillips Kennedy was able to have a chat with him on Indiana Jones, The Last of Us, and more a few days ago, which led to his comments on potentially making “the stories that I want to tell.” Conversations might be underway already, but nothing is set in stone. Of course, online opinions are all over the place, but everyone seems to agree the games industry is a brutal space at the moment, no matter what your name and experience are.
Now, another renowned voice actor, Assassin’s Creed Origins’ Abubakar Salim, has chimed in. “Don’t do it” was his only comment at first on X. To be fair, IGN’s take on the original story made it sound like Baker is ready to swap acting for full-time game development, but no such thing was stated during his chat with Eurogamer. This may have prompted Salim to worry a bit too much about Baker’s plans – likewise, judging by the GIFs in Salim’s replies, his warning is more likely a bit of light-hearted gallows humour anyway.
Still, it’s easy to see where he’s coming from. Though his developer, Surgent Studios, has already delivered two notable games in the cracking Tales of Kenzera: Zau and Dead Take, Salim has never shied away from explaining how tough it is to create a game and reach the finish line, and that’s before you even get to online backlash.
“It’s a ruthless space atm,” he added after another user asked on X. Meanwhile, John “Bucky” Buckley, Head of Publishing and Comms at Palworld developer Pocketpair, stepped in to say the opposite: “Do it.” At least everyone is having a bit of fun with the discussion, amongst the struggles.
Despite some financial struggles and downsizing, Surgent Studios is still trucking along, with the co-op “extraction platformer” FixForce releasing into early access last month and getting ‘positive’ reviews on Steam at the time of writing. As for Salim, he’s been lending his voice to video game projects like Dying Light: The Beast and the Final Fantasy Tactics remaster, all while showing up in shows like House of the Dragon.
