I e-mailed Ryan Drummond earlier, and that is indeed what he confirmed. No, I'm not happy about it either... but I guess it's how it's gonna be from now on. 
Here's Ryan's reply:
"Hi Iain!
Thanks for writing in. I wish I had happier
news to tell you, but I don't.
The original voice cast for the Sonic games
HAS BEEN replaced by the Sonic X actors.
I am NOT leaving
Sonic's voice by choice. Here is an excerpt from
the AUGUST 2005 newsletter that will be up on
RyanDrummond.com sometime by the end of the
month. Thought I'd give you a sneak peek since
you were nice enough to write in.
Read on...
************************************************
Last thing to mention this month is all for the
Sonic the Hedgehog fans out there. A lot of you
have been emailing in and asking about whether or
not Ill be doing Sonics voice for the new
Shadow the Hedgehog game, etc. Well, heres a
news flash on that and a true insight to how this
business works (and sometimes works against you).
        After hearing some rumors on the internet and so
forth about how the game had already started
voicework (or in some cases was already done), I
emailed my contacts at Sega to find out what the
deal was. I got the following facts:
        Many of you remember what happened with the
whole Sonic X television show. Please read all
about it in the July 2003 newsletter. In short,
4Kids was really inconsiderate and cast it
without me, not caring about what the fans
thought or about product continuity. Well, all of
a sudden, Sega decided that product continuity
WAS important to them starting with this new
Shadow game. So, WITHOUT TELLING ME, they have
*replaced* me as the voice of Sonic with the
fella who does Sonics voice for the Sonic X
show. I was only told after it happened. My Sega
contact told me that they thought it would be a
good idea that from now on that Sonics voice
remain the same in the game and the non-Sega
cartoon series. So after FIVE YEARS of providing
the voice of Sonic, I was let go without a word
or an explanation (until I went looking for one).
        Now I have no ill-will towards the new voice.
Ive heard him. He does a fine job. And hes just
an actor like me trying to make a living, so good
for him! I DO, however, have issue with Sega for
having no grace in letting me go from my
position. Thats life, you could say, but you
know, in MY life, you treat people with respect.
And I believe five years of giving my all to the
little blue hedgehog (and to all the fans!)
deserved a little more respect. So Sega, goodbye
and good luck. Sounds like youll get along fine
with 4Kids when you do business that way.
*************************************************
So that's the story. Spread the word. Sorry it
doesn't have a happier ending. In my opinion,
Sega does not care what the fans think, because
they figure the fans will buy the games and the
products no matter who's doing the voice. If you
feel so inclined. Write them and tell them what
you think and feel. Let your voice be heard!!
THANK YOU SO MUCH for your wonderful support.
You have my deepest gratitude.
~Ryan Drummond"
As of this moment I am officialy importing all Sonic-related games from Japan. Sega - you officialy SUCK!!
That is pretty disgusting actually. Sega should have at least told Ryan Drummond first.
In terms of voice acting quality its not going to be much of a change really. But you know for most of the characters i prefered the Sonic Adventure/Heroes voices over the Sonic X ones.
i'm pretty sure Ryan and co will still be working but...not good buisness to just blank someone who worked for you for 5 years.
Anyway heres the complete cast of Adventure, Adventure 2, Shuffle, Heroes and Advance 3.
If a character is not listed but featured in a game it means the previous voice artist voiced them.
Adventure Voices
Ryan Drummond - Sonic
Corey Bringas - Tails
Micheal Mcgaharn - Knuckles
Steve Brodie RIP - E102 Gamma / President/ Pachamac
Jon St John - Big / Sonic Advance Games Voice
Jenny Droulliard - Amy
Elara Distler - Tikal
Deem Bistoe RIP - Dr. Eggman
Voice Directors
Lani Minella - Default Options Voice.
Bobby White
Shuffle Voices
Ryan Drummond - Sonic, Knuckles and Super Sonic
Elara Distler - Illumina
Lani Minella - Lumina Flowlight and Void
Adventure 2 Voices
Scott Dreier - Knuckles
David Humphrey - Shadow
Lani Minella - Rouge/Omochao
Moriane Angeline - ???
Marc Biagi - ???
Sue Wakefield - ???
Shelly Fox - ???
Unknown Voices
Maria Robotnik
Dr Gerald Robotnik
President's Secutary
Various GUN Pilots
Newsreader
Prison Island Female Voice
Voice Director
Lani Minella
Heroes Voices
Bill Corkery - Tails
Emily Corkery - ???
Willaim Corkery - ???
Sarah Wulflec - Cream
Unknown Voices
Omega
Vector
Charmy
Espio
Voice Director
Lani Minella
I have a hard time believe how legit this is. I mean, David Humphrey is still doing Shadow, so why would Ryan Drummond or anyone else be replaced. It doesn't make any sense what-so-ever.
Ryan was PERFECT as Sonic, and i hate his Sonic X voice, it's too...
I don't know, I dont like it.
Mick Pollock taking Eggman I could udnerstand, seeing as Bristows not there to take the role and Pollock already has Sonic X as an audition...
But, well I prety much HATE every other voice I've heard in Sonic X - which goes up to the end of the Chaos Ark so I dont know what Shadow will sound like...
I could of sworn that the voice shouting "Chaos Blast" from the trailers was the old voice for Shadow though....
...
Hey... didn't Ryan already do voices for Sonic Rush?
It is legit, here's a screen I took of the email he sent me:
img.photobucket.com/albums/v612/coolfunkman/ryan_email.jpg
This is so wrong...
I am extremley dissapointed by this news, if it's true.
The weird thing is, Jason Griffith also does Shadow's voice as well as Sonic's in Sonic X. Yet we can clearly hear David Humphrey in the Shadow the Hedgehog trailers. Also, IMDB have listed both him and Ryan Drummond to be in it.
never had been and never will be...
It is compiled by fans, and a lot of information on there is based on RUMOURS...
Oh,I see...thanks. But you did hear David Humphrey's voice in the trailers didn't you? It sounded extremley similar to him...
Anyone can fake an email screenshot. Some people have faked CNN news articles, this is a fiarly simple task. I'll believe this when I see it from a respected member of the Sonic internet fandom.
I don't have the energy to care at the time. I've heard from the Gens topic that SEGA "hates America"(I've thought of it for myself and realized that it's true), but this change can also apply to other countries.
Sonic/Super Sonic-8
Tails-9
Knuckles-10
Amy-8
Cream-6
Vanilla-6
Eggman-8
Shadow/Super Shadow-10
Rouge-7
Big-5
It could get ugly from here on...
Damnit, I knew it was the Sonic X VA in the Riders trailer, but the ENTIRE CAST!!! Rouge is terrible in SX, she sounds far too mature, and like she's been smoking heavily, in the games, she seems more youthful and more playfully mischievous. Sonic's VA...he sounds too gruff and feels like he's forcing the part. Drummond? Drummond sounded relaxed and fitted the part like a glove.
By god, they better leave Omega out of the games from now on.
SEGA better realise their mistake and at least apologize to the former cast, they may not have been great, but just ditching them without warning is completely unprofessional.
*backhands Sega* Well this is alarming. What Robo said about Rouge's SX VA is true. Wow this is gonna take some getting used to. Reminds me of that time in DBZ when they switched the Goku, Vegeta, and I think Krillin VA mid series. It was weird at first, but now I can't listen to them any other way. So this may not be too bad. *shudders*
Quote:
Reminds me of that time in DBZ when they switched the Goku, Vegeta, and I think Krillin VA mid series.
Because dubbing halted at that point. They needed new VAs by the time they restarted dubbing.
I'm torn. Sure, sure, the voice actors weren't exactly so hot themselves, but I definitely preferred some of them to 4Kids' dreck. Now I have to put up with their crap any way I slice it.
Sega's lost it... They've just lost it...
@#%$ Sega of America.
This is highly unprofessional of them. Not only that, but it's a bad decision in terms of quality too, Ryan Drummond was absolutely perfect for Sonic, and many of the other established English Sonic voice acting crew were a damn sight better than 4Kids' dubbing crew.
If anyone else is as disgusted by this I urge you to let Sega of America know through mail at the following address.
Sega of America
650 Townsend Street, Suite 650
San Francisco, CA 94103-4908
Sega of America should be wipe off the face of the planet. First the messed up the english story of classic sonic, then they kill the saturns chances in america and now they have unleashed the worst dub company in america upon sonic and all current and next-gen consoles. I feel like burning SoA to the ground. In the middle of the work day.
Quote:
Well, all of a sudden, Sega decided that product continuity WAS important to them starting with this new Shadow game.
That doesn't sound like the Sega we know at all.
Shadow's new bad-ass game will go so well with his 4kid's voice of Sonic's VA with a cold. =D
Quote:
The weird thing is, Jason Griffith also does Shadow's voice as well as Sonic's in Sonic X. Yet we can clearly hear David Humphrey in the Shadow the Hedgehog trailers. Also, IMDB have listed both him and Ryan Drummond to be in it.
Yeah it's not like IMDB to be wrong about the facts. 
It's a shame, I liked pretty much most of the VA's for the games. I only really hated Tails VA for SA2 - that wasn't acting, it was reading.
I never watched the Sonic X dub much, so I don't remember how bad it was. But I remember I hated Rouge and Creams VA. At least Shadows VA "seems" to have remained the same... for now.
Look on the bright side-
It's better than having Urkel in the games from now on.
Quote:
Rouge is terrible in SX, she sounds far too mature, and like she's been smoking heavily, in the games, she seems more youthful and more playfully mischievous.
Meghan Hollingshead was probably the only decent voice-actress out of the entire lot (except maybe Mike Pollock), and then they got rid of her because she moved out of New York... o.O;.
Anyway, the Shadow in the trailer for ShtH sounds nothing like the one from Sonic X, though it doesn't have that slight english accent that Shadow had in Adventure 2 and Heroes... it does sound like Humphrey.
Quote:
Look on the bright side- It's better than having Urkel in the games from now on
Actually, I prefered JW, but you all know that. XP Anyway, this is low for SGEA. I honestly have grown a tollerance to Drummond and I never did like the 4Kids VA.... this had better be a hoax.
Quote:
Shadow's new bad-ass game will go so well with his 4kid's voice of Sonic's VA with a cold. =D
The new trailer uses the old Shadow's voice, doesn't it? If not, it's a pretty good facsimile.
I can't help but feel Bristow's death played a factor in this wayward decision. I get the feeling 4Kids wouldn't let Sega have Mike unless they gave the ENTIRE cast roles in the games. A package deal, if you will. The continuity thing makes sense, in that regard.
What they did was bad form, no matter how you slice it. But considering they're freelancers, this is something they should have expected at some point in time, yes? **shakes head**
EDIT: I just realized they may have kept Shadow's old voice because his Sonic X voice was done by Sonic's VA on the show and saw no need to replace him. Possibly the only good thing to come out of all this (I mean, if it were true and I wasn't just talking about of my ass).
Since when has Sonic Team ever cared about continuity?
Actually Sonic Team did have VA continuity already - Sonic X over there in Japan uses the game VAs. It's Sega of America that kinda screwed that up by picking 4Kids, and now had a sudden change-of-heart (IMO, for the worse).
Plot continuity... true that.
Poor Mr. Drummond. Now who will take care of Arnold, Willis and Kimbery?
I'm just kidding folks. It sucks that they won't have proper voice continuity in the games now, and he should have been told awhile back from Sega that he wasn't going to have his job there anymore. Wasn't that him doing Sonics voice on the E3 demo? Maybe they switched it afterwards.
Sega's lost it... They've just lost it...
Couldn't say it better myself...
Although I shall always prefer Ryan, I can stand Jason's Sonic voice.
Several other e-mails to people at the Sonicanime forum have confirmed this sad truth.
However, we only know that Ryan has been replaced, and we do not know about the other voices. Apparently, Shadow is still David.
Myself, I'll be okay as long as they don't bring in the 4kids Rouge or Amy.
And if they do, than.... well, here's hoping there's a Japanese language option.
Quote:
And if they do, than.... well, here's hoping there's a Japanese language option.
Japanese language option is heaven ::nodnod::
WTF
:"> :"> :"> :"> :"> :"> :"> :"> :"> :"> :"> :"> :"> :"> :">
And so the evil of 4KIDS strikes again.
Khaaaaaaaaaannnnnn
Quote:
And if they do, than.... well, here's hoping there's a Japanese language option.
You mean the one they've refused to put in their games since Heroes?
The GCN format doesn't have enough space for the JPN voice cast, the X-Box version appears to be capable, but doesn't have it either. The Playstation 2 does. I can't stand that system... Don't wanna say why. Too "offensive".
Quote:
You mean the one they've refused to put in their games since Heroes?
Which is why I mentioned that I hoped for it.... Otherwise I would have just assumed it would be there.
"SEGA better realise their mistake and at least apologize to the former cast, they may not have been great, but just ditching them without warning is completely unprofessional."
It may be unprofessional but it happens all the time with this kind of work. Married With Children and Seinfeild(was it that?) were both canceled without any of the stars of the show getting a heads up. Mr Oneil was told by hotel bus boy when he first got the word.
Any who this freakin stinks! Most of the actors from the show just sound sooo crapy, man I am not looking forward to listening to Knuckles in the new games.
Sega.
May you burn in hell for your sins, we hate you all.
Quote:
Sega.
May you burn in hell for your sins, we hate you all.
It's a video game.
Actually, now that I have viewed the latest Shadow Trailer in better Quality, it definitley is Jason Griffith doing Shadow's voice...man oh man. Farewell, Ryan Drummond and Co!
Bloody hell - what a cutthroat business this is indeed. Look at it this way - you have a voice actor who does the voice of Sonic for 5 years, and then gets the sack without realising it. If this was any regular business, there would be hell to pay - unfair dismissalls, employment tribunals etc.
4Kids are total idiots for doing this. Personally i'm not bothered about the Sonic X voices, but I still think it's a totally unprofessional way of doing things. Much like the way they handle their anime for that matter...
Could there be a possibillity that Sega *had* to use the Sonic X voice character? I think that's highly unlikely but it's just a thought.
Still Sega - shame on you. And shame on you too 4Kids. Utterly pathetic...
Well this stinks. Ryan was getting to be a very good voice for Sonic. In SA he was coming into the role, was good, but not perfect. By SA2, Ryan had become a good deal better of a voice actor of Sonic. He sounded a lot more like what I thought Sonic should sound like. In SH, though the scripts themselves were horrible, Ryan himself was just about perfect. I don't get why they fire him, right when he became THE perfect voice actor for Sonic. Just when he got really good, they get rid of him. What the heck?
Sega of America=:">
Ryan...eh his voice was okay. I didn't mind Jaleel's voice either but the treatment is sort of wrong...
They didn't fire him...
They just stopped hiring him...
Still, despite being perfectly legal it's still a pretty nasty situation to be in, my regards to Ryan who has been the perfect Sonic, and I wish they could of just left it for one more game....
Give Sonic the new voice for the next gen games, for shadow I want the old voices back, as I hope this will tie up the loose ends of the Adventure games... (well, SA2 pretty much only really...)
o.o @ some of you people
4Kids didn't have a thing to do with this decision.
Silly SEGA, Sonic is 4Kids!
And once again, Sega of America screws the fanbase.
If everyone is so upset at this than take VCP's advice and mail SEGA about this. I am planning on doing so this week and everyone else needs to this as well. The US-fan base really needs to get onto this and not only just complain on message boards but also they need to start mailing SEGA and complaining about this whole issue. It only costs 37 cents for a postage stamp and I think even people without jobs can come up with 37 cents to get a single stamp. Trust me, you want things to change start writing letters and telling SoA how disgusted you are with this.
And in case you don't feel like clicking on page one, SoA's address is:
Sega of America
650 Townsend Street, Suite 650
San Francisco, CA 94103-4908
I see it now:
Knuckles: "Shadow, if you want your memories back you must belive in the HEART OF THE EMERALDS".
*Shadow begins having mindless flashback about frienship for an hour *
Knuckles:"I SUMMON THIS MONSTER USING THE MAGIC OF MY MASTER EMERALD SPELL CARD! NOW WITNESS THE POWER OF PERFECT CHAOS! THE GOD OF DESTRUCTION. NOW PERFECT CHAOS...OBLITERATE!!!"
Knuckles:"Aha you have activated my trap card SHOVEL CLAW which allows me to send bury you in the Shadow Realm for 4 turns"
"> <
I just Dan Green doesn't start changing between Yugi and Yami like he did last Saturday on Sonic X.
Well, I'm one of the few who really don't care. I know that the most of the fans on the boards are upset, but do we really make up the majority of the fanbase because if we don't, I don't really see how they're "screwing" the fanbase or not listening to it, it ain't as if we told them before this incident that we don't want them to change the VA's. One thing about this I do find disturbing, if not disgusting, is how SOA treated Mr. Drummond and apparantly the rest of the cast; if Sega is "screwing" anyone, it's the now-former cast. As far as the X voices go, I like them all and it ain't gonna bother me. The only ones that I'm really gonna remotely miss are Amy, Rouge, and Cream's VA's where I think Rouge and Cream's VA's sound somewhat better and Amy's slightly better. Oh, yeah, Knux's game voice is an edge better than the X one to me, and the new Sonic, in the Riders video, sounds good, if not great, to me.
This makes me sad. No wait--depressed. I liked Ryan...
Looking on the bright side, at least we already know how Jason sounds. (...not so bright...)
But honestly, it doesn't matter how good the voice actors are, because if the scripts suck and are as corny/sappy/whatever as ... Heroes ... then it really, really doesn't matter.
As for who did make this decision, I challenge them to a duel. Magic or Yu-Gi-Oh!. With swords. (FYI: I'm having an unusual addiction to Yu-Gi-Oh!--I don't have a sane reason why...)
