Videogame voice actors and motion-capture performers have called a strike over failed labor contract negotiations. The video game performers concerns were focused around AI-related protections for workers, bringing about another work stoppage in Hollywood. This SAG-AFTRA strike throws part of the entertainment industry into another work stoppage.
The SAG-AFTRA has called a strike of the Interactive Media Agreement that covers video game performers, effective July 26, the union said on Thursday.
Video game actors strike
The decision of actors to go on a strike follows months of negotiations with major videogame companies including Activision Productions, Electronic Arts, Epic Games, Take-Two Interactive , DisneyCharacter Voices and Warner Bros Discovery’s WB Games.
The strike which is a second for video game voice actors and motion capture performers under the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists will begin at 12:01 a.m. Friday.
Video game actors go on strike for AI
The Interactive Media Agreement expired in November 2022 and was being extended on a monthly basis during the talks.
“Although agreements have been reached on many issues important to SAG-AFTRA members, the employers refuse to plainly affirm, in clear and enforceable language, that they will protect all performers covered by this contract in their AI language,” the union said in a statement.
SAG-AFTRA negotiators say gains have been made over wages and job safety in the video game contract, but that the studios will not make a deal over the regulation of generative AI. Without guardrails, game companies could train AI to replicate an actor’s voice, or create a digital replica of their likeness without consent or fair compensation, the union said.
Fran Drescher, the union’s president, said in a prepared statement that members would not approve a contract that would allow companies to “abuse AI.”
SAG-AFTRA for game industry
The SAG-AFTRA also represents the film and television actors who went on strike in July last year over concerns of inadequate safeguards against artificial intelligence (AI), putting Hollywood in the midst of two simultaneous work stoppages for the first time in 63 years.
While movie and TV studios negotiated from a unified position, and had the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) negotiating on their behalf, there is no such analogous group in the games industry, so it is highly likely that one or more game developers will accept the union’s demands, said Wedbush managing director Michael Pachter.
“Once one (developer) does it, all will do it.”
Video game industry a profitable one
The global video game industry generates well over $100 billion in profit annually, according to game market forecaster Newzoo. The people who design and bring those games to life are the driving force behind that success, SAG-AFTRA said.
“Eighteen months of negotiations have shown us that our employers are not interested in fair, reasonable AI protections, but rather flagrant exploitation,” said Interactive Media Agreement Negotiating Committee Chair Sarah Elmaleh.
Last month, union negotiators told The Associated Press that the game studios refused to “provide an equal level of protection from the dangers of AI for all our members” — specifically, movement performers.
Amid the tense interactive negotiations, SAG-AFTRA created a separate contract in February that covered indie and lower-budget video game projects. The tiered-budget independent interactive media agreement contains some of the protections on AI that video game industry titans have rejected.
