SAG-AFTRA is seeking authorization to strike against the video game companies, now, too
The union last went on strike against the big video game companies in 2016
Because one major industry-shaking strike just wasn’t enough, SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher announced today that the actors union is requesting authorization to strike against several of the planet’s biggest video game publishers, too. Negotiations between SAG-AFTRA and several big-name publishers—including Electronic Arts, WB Games, Activision, and more—have apparently reached a “stalemate,” according to a union statement, which means the union is seeking permission from its members for another strike.
SAG-AFTRA’s contract with games publishers was actually supposed to expire last year, but was extended so that the two groups could continue negotiations over increased revenue for voice actors and, you guessed it, protections against the use of AI technology. In her statement to press today (per Variety), Drescher said that, “Once again artificial intelligence is putting our members in jeopardy of reducing their opportunity to work. And once again, SAG-AFTRA is standing up to tyranny on behalf of its members.” The union is also pushing for additional safety precautions to be adopted for its members while recording and filming for games, a process which has increasingly incorporated motion capture as technology advances to use more of an actor’s performance.
The union and the studios last got into serious conflict in 2016, which ended up resulting in a strike that lasted for almost an entire year. Since then, video games have only become an even bigger piece of the entertainment business—especially as studios appear to have finally cracked the secrets of creating lucrative TV shows and movies out of them. At the same time, the process of acting in games has only gotten more elaborate—you only have to look at the massive series of recording sessions used to create the recent Baldur’s Gate 3, incorporating facial capture to make the game’s characters more lifelike, to see how acting in games has become a far more involved process.
SAG-AFTRA and the games studios are apparently set to resume negotiation (presumably with a strike authorization in hand) on September 26.