The voices of your favorite video game characters are going on strike
The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists announced Thursday that video game performers will go on strike starting at 12:01 a.m. on July 26. More than 2,500 video game performers — a group that includes voice actors, motion capture artists and others — are taking to the picket line after nearly two years of negotiations with a major video game company.
The biggest stumbling block in the negotiations is the unlimited use of artificial intelligenceaccording to a press release. Video game artists want protection against the use of their likenesses and voices.
“Eighteen months of negotiations have shown us that our employers are not interested in fair, reasonable AI protections, but rather in blatant exploitation,” said the chair of SAG-AFTRA’s interactive media committee and Hi-Fi rush Voice actor Sarah Elmaleh said in a press release: “We refuse this paradigm — we will not leave any of our members behind, nor will we wait any longer for adequate protection.”
The group of video game companies negotiating with SAG-AFTRA includes Activision, Electronic Arts, Insomniac Games, Take-Two Productions, WB Games and others. Video game artists will stop working — meaning no more video game recordings — when the strike begins on Friday. Audrey Cooling, a spokesperson for the video game company side of the Interactive Media Agreement, said in a statement to Polygon that the companies are disappointed that the union is choosing to strike “so close to a deal.”
Here is the full statement:
We are disappointed that the union has decided to walk away when we are so close to a deal, and we remain prepared to resume negotiations. We have already found common ground on 24 of the 25 proposals, including historic wage increases and additional safety provisions. Our offer directly addresses SAG-AFTRA’s concerns and expands meaningful AI protections, including requiring consent and fair compensation for all artists working under the IMA. These terms are among the strongest in the entertainment industry.
The AI slowdown seems to be over protection for video game artists on camera —such as motion capture artists, according to The Washington Post.
“They say we’re going to protect voice actors, but we’re not going to protect anyone else,” Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, executive director of SAG-AFTRA, told The Post last month. “The bottom line is, if you have artists working for you, helping to create the content that goes into your game, whether it’s voice work, stunt work, motion work … all of those artists deserve the right to informed consent and to be fairly compensated for the use of their image, their likeness, their voice, their performance. It’s that simple.”
During the strike, voice actors and others covered by the Interactive Media Agreement can still work on projects using one of several updated contracts that provide “critical AI protections for members,” SAG-AGTRA said, depending on the work being contracted.
The last time artists in the video game industry went on strike was in 2016. The strike lasted almost a year.