This summer, the SAG-AFTRA actors’ union announced that it was going on strike against video game publishers. Since the beginning of the strike, the union has picketed multiple publishers, while entering into agreements that allow its members to work with others. Four months after the strike began, and with negotiations ongoing, here’s the state of the games industry for striking actors.
The SAG-AFTRA strike began on July 26, after the union and game publishers were unable to come to an agreement about the use of generative AI to replicate actors’ voices in games.
“We’re not going to consent to a contract that allows companies to abuse A.I. to the detriment of our members,” SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher said at the time. The union did not immediately return a request for comment.
The strike affects games that began production after August 2023, meaning that some of the biggest upcoming titles we already know about won’t be included. However, SAG-AFTRA’s chief contracts officer Ray Rodriguez told Inverse that even non-struck games could be disrupted due to actors choosing not to work with them, either out of solidarity for striking union members or not wanting to work without AI protections.
As SAG-AFTRA says, “some companies will have both struck games and games that cannot be struck due to certain contract terms and, as such, it's easier to think about the strike in terms of struck games as opposed to struck companies.”
By September, SAG-AFTRA announced that 80 video games had agreed to the union’s AI terms, allowing actors to work on those productions. To begin working with union actors again, productions must agree to interim agreements SAG-AFTRA developed that require publishers to seek actors’ consent before making and using AI replicas of their voices, along with fair pay to actors when those replicas are used.
Later that month, the union announced that it was striking against the makers of League of Legends and filed an unfair labor practice charge against a support studio. According to SAG-AFTRA, Formosa Interactive, which works on audio post-production for the game, attempted to subvert the strike by soliciting non-union actors through a shell company. Both Formosa Interactive and developer Riot Games denied SAG-AFTRA’s claims.
On October 15, the union and video game publishers agreed to hold in-person negotiations for the first time since the strike began. Negotiations began the next week with publishers including Activision, Electronic Arts, Insomniac Games, and WB Games. The day before those negotiations started, October 22, SAG-AFTRA announced that 120 games from 49 companies had agreed to interim agreements, allowing production to continue with union actors.
The latest development in the strike came on November 14, when SAG-AFTRA announced the development of the Independent Interactive Localization Agreement. Like the union’s other interim agreements, it includes provisions for fair pay and consent in the use of AI models, this time aimed at actors performing in games localized from another language into English.
“Many brilliant, beloved games come to market in the U.S. from other countries, projects which need highly skilled localizing performers, and those performers absolutely deserve robust, enforceable A.I. protections,” negotiating committee chair Sarah Elmaleh said. “Many such companies have already signed interim localization agreements in proud demonstration of their respect for their actors, and we hope that the updated terms in the Independent Interactive Localization Agreement will create even more opportunities for them to collaborate with U.S. union talent.”
While the new agreement could be a major step toward bringing some actors back to work, there’s still no sign of an end to the strike. The same day the new agreement was announced, SAG-AFTRA also picketed outside Formosa Interactive.
As of November 14, more than 130 games have signed interim agreements with SAG-AFTRA.
