SAG-AFTRA calls for video game actors' strike authorization

Voice actors for video games may be following TV and movie actors to the picket line.

Driving the news: SAG-AFTRA, the union that has a contract with leading gaming companies for actors who do voice or performance acting for video games, called for a strike Friday, citing lack of progress in renegotiating a contract that expired last November.

• The union said Friday that its board has unanimously agreed to ask its members to vote by Sept 25 to give union negotiators the power to call a strike.

Details: The union is calling for a retroactive 11% wage increase, on-set medics for hazardous performance capture, and protections against the use of generative AI to replace working actors.

Be smart: While actors who contribute to video games seldom appear as themselves, on camera in a game, they regularly lend their voices to game characters. Many also have their facial and body movements captured to animate the roles they portray.

• Actors have been sounding alarms about the potential for generative AI to clone their voices and speak lines for them, without them getting paid.

What they're saying: "Once again we are facing employer greed and disrespect," SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher said in a statement announcing the strike vote.

• "Once again artificial intelligence is putting our members in jeopardy of reducing their opportunity to work.

The other side: "We all want a fair contract that reflects the important contributions of SAG-AFTRA-represented performers in an industry that delivers world-class entertainment to billions of players around the world," Audrey Cooling, a rep for the game industry producers negotiating the agreement told Axios.

• "We are negotiating in good faith and hope to reach a mutually beneficial deal as soon as possible."
• The game companies who are negotiating with the actors include Activision, EA, Disney, Take-Two Interactive, WB Games and Insomniac.

The big picture: 2023 has been a year of strikes in U.S. entertainment. The Writers Guild of America went on strike for the first time in 15 years in May.

• TV and movie actors repped by SAG-AFTRA went on strike in July.
• The strikes have frozen the production of new TV shows and movies.

Flashback: Video game voice actors last went on strike for nearly a year, from 2016-2017.

The bottom line: The impact of an actors' strike in gaming is less clear than it is for other forms of entertainment.

• While the unavailability of actors can suspend some aspects of production, it can't impede the design and construction of the game's gameplay and virtual worlds

Sign up for the Axios Gaming newsletter here.

Editor's note: This story has been corrected to show that the SAG-AFTRA vote is to authorize a strike, not to call a strike.