SAG-AFTRA Suspends Strike Against Video Game Companies

After nearly a year on strike against major video game companies, SAG-AFTRA has worked out the details of a suspension agreement to allow its performers to return to work for the major studios as its negotiating team readies the terms of a tentative new contract.

The National Board of the union will meet on Thursday to go over the agreement and if it is cleared it will be sent out to its members for ratification. Those details have not yet been disclosed, as far as the specificity of the gains for voice and performance capture workers.

“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,” stated SAG-AFTRA chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland upon unveiling the tentative deal late on June 9.

Added SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher, “Our video game performers stood strong against the biggest employers in one of the world’s most lucrative industries. 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.”

Struck companies — the picketing started last July 26 — had included gaming giants like Activision, Disney Character Voices, Electronic Arts, Epic Games, Formosa Interactive, Insomniac Games, Take 2 Productions and WB Games Inc.

At the time the strike was called, SAG-AFTRA framed the move by saying that pay hadn’t kept pace with inflation and that it had multiple issues of contention with gaming companies’ use of AI in the contracts of performers who make money using their voices and/or likenesses. That included digital replicas of performers’ voices that could be reused or manipulated by the companies for further vocal performances.

The 320-day video game strike went on far longer than the union’s well-publicized stand against the major Hollywood movie studios in 2023. That actors strike lasted 118 days.

A rep for the video game producers negotiating with SAG-AFTRA added some detail on what the tentative contract includes. “This agreement builds on three decades of successful partnership between the interactive entertainment industry and the union,” stated Audrey Cooling, a spokesperson for the game companies. “It delivers historic wage increases of over 24% for performers, enhanced health and safety protections, and industry-leading AI provisions requiring transparency, consent and compensation for the use of digital replicas in games.”