Last summer, American actors union SAG-AFTRA initiated a strike with regards to the use of AI in generating voiceover for video games. Now, almost a year later, it seems the strike may draw to a close.
The union group announced that it has reached a "tentative" agreement with publishers and developers — including Activision, Warner Bros. Games, EA, Insomniac Games, and many more.
"It is expected the strike will be suspended once the terms of a strike suspension agreement are finalised with employers," reads the statement from SAG-AFTRA.
The agreement is subject to review and ratification, so there's still some work to do, but this is a big step in the right direction.
"Patience and persistence has resulted in a deal that puts in place the necessary A.I. guardrails that defend performers’ livelihoods in the A.I. age, alongside other important gains," says National Executive Director & Chief Negotiator, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland.
Participating performers will remain on strike until the ink has dried on a final agreement.
"Our video game performers stood strong against the biggest employers in one of the world’s most lucrative industries," says SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher. "Their incredible courage and persistence, combined with the tireless work of our negotiating committee, has at last secured a deal. The needle has been moved forward and we are much better off than before. As soon as this is ratified we roll up our sleeves and begin to plan the next negotiation. Every contract is a work in progress and progress is the name of the game.”
[source sagaftra.org, via insider-gaming.com]
Comments 21
A lot of people probably just finding out today that voice actors have been on strike for nearly a year.
Not me, I've known for weeks at least. Not that I could tell though.🤷♂️
Sounds like a good thing. Hopefully the members will be happy.
Well, one good thing came out of this.
Paimon will be recast.
Are they gonna forced pubs / devs to not hire non-union VA too cause that feels more like their main objective than "concern about AI".
@PuppetMaster THIS. Union was also trying to bully publishers into ONLY hiring Union VA's which would be worse for games with less variety.
Unions are a good thing, unions that act like the mafia are not. SAG-AFTRA are very much the latter. They are bullies, you pay up or you don't work. They wouldn't even allow a member vote on ending the strike.
The agreement only extends to projects that were officially struck, companies like Genshin's HoYo, arguably the most affected, were never officially struck so any agreement doesn't extend to them.
@PuppetMaster I thought they already did.
We should all be doing our part too. Absolutely do not buy any game that utilises generative AI in any capacity. We have to hit them where it hurts.
@nessisonett Your average consumer does not care enough to boycott anything. And as we all know, gamer boycotts are a laugh anyway. All mean words on social media and not a lot else.
More like SAG-AFTRA gave up after all their VAs were replaced for a better english speaking alternative in some other country.
@nessisonett
I'll do my part by boycotting any game that has a SAG-AFTRA VA.
@CielloArc If you can’t see that generative AI is a bigger threat to the entire industry than one union you don’t like then you’re part of the problem. Unions are rarely perfect but the alternative is far, far worse.
A lot actors involved with this did their movement no favors on social media. Maybe next time they shouldn't resort to harassing the VAs that replaced them and insulting the only people who would reasonably care about their cause 🤷
@nessisonett I'm sorry but i'm not gonna boycott any game if they use AI and neither will 99% of gamers who don't care about any practice that you don't like. These union voice actors think they have some leverage against companies whereas they have none. Take P4R for example, they hired non union actors to replace those union ones who were in protest (and leaked the existence of the game out of spite) and we should celebrate it because nobody is gonna care if they use the original VAs or not as long as they sound good. Games take way to long to develop so if AI can shorten the amount by helping the studio make stuff that takes months in weeks than i'm all for it
@CielloArc Yes thank you, union members feel salty as if they are entited to anything. You're just a voice actor that can easily be replaced by anyone. They should be grateful they earn money in the first place with the gaming market not turn against the companies that employ them, the gaming sector doesn't need them, they need the gaming sector. Unlike actors or directors
@nessisonett
I'm not part of the problem, I'm the consumer and any creature siding with SAG-AFTRA is literally bringing more harm to the industry than AI ever will.
FFS, this entire strike hasn't been about AI for a while now, it was to secure exclusivity rights for SAG-AFTRA. Negotiations stopped once companies saw that one clause and bailed out.
I didn’t know the Nanny was the President of SAG-AFTRA.
@themightyant Yeah it's a disgusting practice from SAG-AFTRA. They're acting more and more like a mafia organization.
@MidnightDragonDX I believe they've tried but many pubs / devs refused to agree with their terms.
@nessisonett I feel outright banning or boycotting AI voices is absolutely the wrong approach.
There is room enough for games with wonderful actors and SAG-AFTRA.
But there is also room for new experiences with AI driven voices that can react to everything you do in a way that pre-recorded dialogue never can. I’m excited to see what developers and creatives can do with that to create new and different gaming experiences. (Unreal Fest had a pretty amazing demo for example)
But the idea that this has to be EITHER/OR is a console-war-like false dichotomy. Gaming would be richer for having BOTH, with the right protections in place of course, which has been the hard part.
I don't think they understand how much damage this has done. So many games I'm seeing announced now are using Bri'ish VAs instead of U.S ones because they don't want to deal with this. What truly makes me laugh is that they screwed themselves by going after a company that wasn't even part of their strike if they left well enough alone and stayed in their lane they would've gotten what they wanted and with probably borderline universal support. But NOPE they couldn't leave well enough alone and decided to basically expose themselves as a wannabe mafia trying to monopolise voice acting and look where it's landed them (insert the curb your enthusiasm music here 😅)
Unions can be a force for good.
SAG is not one of them.
@AgentMantis Which is exactly why as a Hoyo game player, I am advising them to just recast them all if they refuse to work. Especially Corina as Paimon. She's annoying, and acted like a damn child during the strike.
Ironically, she's a scab herself. Shilling for SAG while also being Fi-Core.
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