Michelle Ruff Dishes On SEGA Using Old Cream The Rabbit Recordings Instead Of Recording New Lines

Video Games

Apr 15

Image Source: YouTube; Edited by Culture Slate

Though Michelle Ruff has been the voice of Cream the Rabbit in the Sonic the Hedgehog series since 2010, she has not been called in to record more lines since her initial casting. Instead, SEGA has opted to reuse her dialog for every single appearance the character has had since then. Ruff recently spoke about this in an interview with The Natural Aristocrat:

"So with Cream the Rabbit, I recorded her back in 2010 for Sonic Colors. Well, they reused my recordings for future projects and apparently, I had signed something giving them permission to do that. I don’t remember, but all of these future Sonic games that have come out with Cream the Rabbit in them, I have made no money off of them at all. Everybody’s like, ‘You’re Cream the Rabbit in all these games!’ Sonic at the Tokyo Olympics 2020, Sonic at the Winter Olympics 2016. And I’m like, I did not record one line for any of those games.”

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The voice actress does not appreciate that SEGA can’t even seem to afford to give her a day player rate to have her record new sounds and dialog and instead has opted to use her 12-13-year-old recordings instead. This does not sit well with the actress, especially since she is making nothing off of the reuse of her clips. This revelation came with mixed reception from the fandom. Some stated that this is a common practice, and the real issue is the diminished role the character has had in the past decade.

Tbh I don't really see the issue at face value. Reusing already existing voice clips for smaller roles makes sense. The real problem here is them just not giving Cream any good roles that would actually require new dialogue for 12 years.
— SSL2004 (@SSL_2004) April 10, 2023

Others, however, put the blame squarely on the actress, claiming she did not read her contract closely enough:

"Apparently, I signed something to allow them to do that."

Mystery solved - read the small print before signing anything. This is entirely her fault, to sign something is to agree to it...
— Sharky (@RyanLThomas1) April 10, 2023

Still, most agreed that Cream the Rabbit needs a more substantial role in future Sonic games, if not simply to force SEGA to call Ruff back into the studio again to record new lines. Plenty of others chimed in and stated that she should at least be getting royalties for the reuse of her recordings. Whether or not we will see Cream in a future mainline Sonic title is yet to be seen, but if she is in the next game, it would not be surprising to see SEGA use these new clips for the next 10 to 20 years, barring any major voice change.

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