Thousands of video game actors went on strike on July 26 for the first time since 2017. The fight is over AI protections and other issues in contract negotiations with some of the biggest studios and publishers, and will halt work from SAG-AFTRA members on future projects, as well as possibly keep them from promotion of upcoming games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Dragon Age: The Veilguard, until a deal is reached.
“Exploitation is exactly what the bargaining group would have us accept for ourselves,” bargaining committee chair Sarah Elmaleh (Gone Home, Hi-Fi Rush) said during a press conference on July 25. “The employers refuse to plainly affirm in clear and enforceable language that they will protect all performers covered by this contract in their AI language. They insist we overlook obvious AI loopholes that imperil both movement and voice performance, which are in today’s games frequently combined.”
The game companies, which include Activision, Epic Games, EA, and Warner Bros., said in a statement that their offer “extends meaningful AI protections that include requiring consent and fair compensation to all performers working under the IMA (Interactive Media Agreement).” But SAG-AFTRA members say that’s not the case and that the proposals fall short of what has been established in previous agreements with other studios.
Zeke Alton (Callisto Protocol, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart) disputed the companies’ characterization. “It’s disingenuous,” he said during the press conference. “I’m sorry, all right, there is a base level that protects all of the members of this union, and that is what we expect, and that is what we demand, and that’s why we’re here, because we are not getting that. So you can say something, put it in the contract if you mean it.”
Why are game actors on strike?
SAG-AFTRA represents over 2,000 performers in gaming on both the voice acting and motion capture sides. The last Interactive Media Agreement expired in November 2022 and the guild has been in negotiations with major gaming companies ever since to establish new safety guidelines, pay rate increases, and protections around generative AI. As interest in companies like OpenAI has exploded over the past year, and people have seen the power of tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney to copy existing work and remix it on demand with simple prompts, creatives have been calling for guardrails for how generative AI is used and monetized.
Its potential applications in gaming, where entire worlds, characters, and stories are made with strings of code, are especially evident, with CEOs at big publishers publicly hyping up the prospect of using generative AI to cut down on costs to their shareholders. SAG-AFTRA members are demanding companies be transparent about how AI will be used in voice, face, and motion capture performances, and be required to seek consent and sign additional agreements with actors before any of their work can be used in that regard.
The main fear is that a performer could record a single session and then have their entire likeness copied to effectively duplicate their work throughout the rest of the game without them ever knowing or being paid for it. “This technology, like I said, with a digital replica, can make a performance as me when I’m not in the room,” Alton said. “And if there’s no transparency, and I don’t know it’s even occurring, there’s no way to go back and ensure that we get proper consent and compensation.”
While game companies say they are agreeing to AI protections for performers, the union says those protections were only extended at the last minute before the strike and only for actors who are recognizable in the finished game or who play specific characters. The current protections offered would also seemingly leave out motion artists whose work is changed using generic AI tools trained on random internet data.
“The protections only extend to on-camera performers and to voice performers under their offer if the performer is identifiable in the output of the AI digital replica,” chief contracts officer Ray Rodriguez told Aftermath in an interview last week. “But the truth is, in video games, it’s not going to be identifiable, as you could be doing the stunts that form the movement for Spider-Man, but what the player is going to see is Spider-Man. So that requirement of identifiability really leaves movement performers out of the scope of coverage.”
What games could be affected by the strike?
Strike rules require all SAG-AFTRA members not to work on or promote games at any studios or publishers that are part of the current deadlocked negotiations or who haven’t already signed onto one of its existing agreements. That includes everything from voicing grunts in something like Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions to pivotal scenes in Insomniac Games’ upcoming Wolverine game. Promotion, meanwhile, could include everything from tweeting about a game to appearing on podcasts. But it’s not as simple as every game from the companies involved being part of the strike.
Part of why it’s so hard to know exactly which games will be affected is because of the video game industry’s infamous penchant for secrecy, which has trickled into the SAG-AFTRA strike itself. When asked for a list of currently announced games that would be impacted by the work stoppage, a spokesperson for the union told Kotaku that wasn’t possible since “the majority of the titles in production are listed under code names and we are not provided with actual titles of videogames when they register.” About 30 or so existing studios and companies have signed onto recent tiered or interim agreements that allow striking members to continue working with them, though the union wouldn’t provide a list of the entities’ names.
Read More: Grand Theft Auto 6 Is Exempt From The Game Actors Strike
There is also a long list of games that are exempted from the strike because they began production before September 2023. While Grand Theft Auto VI publisher Rockstar Games’ parent company is part of the strike, the 2025 blockbuster won’t be impacted because it’s part of that exemption. An entry in SAG-AFTRA’s database of projects lists a warning under GTA VI that while members won’t be disciplined for working on it during the strike, they are still encouraged to show solidarity with their fellow actors by not performing new work on it in the meantime. (Rockstar has worked with SAG-AFTRA talent in the past, including Roger Clark, the voice behind Red Dead Redemption 2‘s Arthur Morgan).
“We’re obviously not happy about that,” Rodriguez told Aftermath regarding the GTA VI exemption and others. “That language was bargained into one of the legacy Interactive Media Agreements before merger [of SAG and AFTRA]. It’s language that the merged union basically inherited, that I think is insane. But it’s there.” But he also noted that most game actor work is contracted on a per-session basis and that performers could still voluntarily opt out of additional sessions until the strike is resolved. “This language made its way into our contract for one reason only, to undermine our union’s most valuable tool: a strike,” committee chair Sarah Elmaleh said in a recent video. “But you always have a choice not to undermine a strike.”
A second set of exemptions revolves around live-service games like Fortnite (made by Epic Games) and Apex Legends (made by EA). As ongoing productions set in motion years ago, those also aren’t part of the strike. SAG-AFTRA is seeking to change that though, which could impact content updates and new characters introduced in later seasons. “SAG-AFTRA has sent its notice of termination of the agreement with respect to many live service games, which will allow SAG-AFTRA to call a strike of one or more of those games at a future date,” a spokesperson for the union told Kotaku. “We will provide detailed instructions to members if such a strike is called in the future.”
These caveats are part of why EA CEO Andrew Wilson recently told investors that the company doesn’t expect any short-term impact from the strike or a “near-term disruption to any of the games we have in development or any of the live services we’re currently running.” But even completed games could still be affected by rules against promoting games sold by struck publishers. For example, Dragon Age: The Veilguard is set to come out later this year. If the strike is still ongoing at the time, cast members Matt Mercer (Final Fantasy VII Rebirth), Ike Amadi (Mortal Kombat 1), and other high-profile actors wouldn’t be able to join the marketing junkets around it.
Big games that are further out are much more likely to run into production delays, or potentially try to replace SAG-AFTRA members with scab labor. Death Stranding 2, a game that’s heavy on performances due to director Hideo Kojima’s cinematic and storytelling ambitions, is set to come out in 2025. While it stars Norman Reedus, who is covered by SAG-AFTRA, it’s possible most of the actor’s work has already been wrapped on the project. If not, however, the strike could potentially delay any unfinished work or scenes that are re-written and need to be re-recorded. While not announced, the third Horizon Zero Dawn game starring Ashely Burch is also likely in some stage of development. The strike could impact that as well.
What happens next with the game actor strike?
Despite the strike, both sides will continue to negotiate behind closed doors. Actors are expected to picket but exact locations for that haven’t yet been announced. One recent event that SAG-AFTRA members weren’t prohibited from attending was San Diego Comic-Con 2024. The guild announced that a carve-out from its promotion restrictions was made to allow actors with panels there to attend and speak out about the issues they’re striking over.
SAG-AFTRA members have also started their first picket line outside Warner Bros. Games on August 1. It’s likely to be the first of many in-person protests where members and those supporting them gather outside the offices of the companies they’re negotiating with to make their case publicly and to discourage colleagues from working during the strike. Union protections prohibit companies from retaliating against workers who refuse to cross picket lines.
In the meantime, its possible some game companies could be moving ahead with using AI for performances with non-union actors anyway. Earlier this week, Wired reported that Activision is already encouraging artists on Call of Duty to use generative AI for concept art and help with assets. When asked at a press conference last week if it or other companies SAG-AFTRA is currently negotiating with might already have begun using AI to duplicate actors’ performances, Rodriguez said he was worried it might be a possibility.
“I personally do have a concern that it is happening, but I’m not in a position to actually cite chapter and verse to support that concern,” he said. “But it is our concern that it is happening and that without the protections that we’re looking for we wouldn’t even necessarily know that it’s happening.”
The last game actors’ strike in 2016 lasted 11 months. Many members at the time rallied around the slogan “Performance Matters” while calling for royalties as companies tried to pit actors against developers when it came to who was getting paid more. The voice of Uncharted’s Nathan Drake, Nolan North, was criticized at the time when, using the spotlight at the 2016 Game Awards, he stressed that the performance of every developer also mattered, which some took as a gesture that undermined the strike.
This time the conversation could be very different as developers at some of the biggest game companies also unionize. What started as labor organizing drives in quality assurance departments at Activision has recently grown to encompass entire teams at Sega of America, Bethesda, and elsewhere. Just last month, over 500 people at Blizzard making World of Warcraft unionized. The unprecedented surge in pro-union sentiment among some parts of the game industry comes as it goes through one of its worst years for layoffs ever, even as certain companies continue posting high profits.
