Another interesting thing to consider: why is Japanese voice acting so much better than dubbing?<p>The answers:<p><pre><code> - The Japanese have a voice acting tradition going back
at least as far as the Bunraku puppet theater
- Voice Acting for Anime is >highly< stylized. There
are various stereotypes that can be plugged into
most Anime stories. This allows the characters to
be put across very clearly.
</code></pre>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunraku" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunraku</a><p>I wonder if the highly stylized use of archetypes from western culture would improve voice acting in English versions of games? (This would require some re-writing, as many games originate in Japan and other non-western cultures, so the archetypes do not match up exactly.)
Voice acting does not sell games. Pretty screenshots sell games. Companies optimize accordingly.<p>(See also: Why do companies with engineering budgets in the hundreds of millions of dollars come out with websites that look like they were designed by an artistically talented 15 year old in flash in 1998?)