After crippling Hollywood, SAG-AFTRA could now extend the actors’ strike also to the world of video games.
The US category union, promoter of the pickets that are literally pausing the film industry and stars and stripes series, has in fact vunanimously voted a motion that would also allow for strikes against development studios.
A case that already has an important historical precedent and that could occur if an agreement is not found between the union and the videogame production companies.
SAG-AFTRA votes to extend the actors’ strike to video games as well
Beginning last July in the wake of protests by screenwriters, the actors’ strike aims to demand better working conditions after the failure to reach an agreement on new national contracts with large US audiovisual companies. Among the hottest topics are the salaries of streaming platforms and the request for greater protection regarding artificial intelligence and deep fakes.
Land demands on video game studios are more or less the same. The union calls for greater protection for actors who lend their voices (or their bodies) in video games from big studios.
In the eye of the storm there would above all be publishers and developers of the caliber of Insomniac Games, Warner Bros, Disney, Activision, EA, Epic Games e Take-Two Interactive. Studies, in short, that in their video games usually incorporate the dubbing or the representation of actors in the flesh. Just think of the Marvel video game franchises, or Epic Games’ Fortnite, which owes a large part of its fortune to the numerous crossovers and real characters represented in the game.
When could the strike start?
Negotiations between SAG-AFTRA and the gaming giants will officially begin on September 26th. If an agreement is not found, as has already happened in the cinematographic sector, the union could go on strike as it is already doing in Hollywood. We can therefore assume that any protests could begin, with all the necessary, as early as October.
In the meantime Fran Drescher, President of SAG-AFTRA, seems to be already on a war footing. In a recent press release from the union, he declared:
“Here we go again! Now our interactive deal (video games) is also stalled. Once again we are faced with greed and disrespect for studies. Once again AI puts our subscribers at risk of reducing their job opportunities. And once again SAG-AFTRA stands up to tyranny on behalf of its members. The disease of greed is spreading like wildfire, ready to burn workers and human beings. We at SAG-AFTRA say NO! Not under our eyes!”
The eventual strike in the gaming sector would not be the first in the history of SAG-AFTRA. In the’October 2016 the union promoted a strike that lasted almost 12 months (340 days, to be precise). The longest in the history of SAG-AFTRA.
In that case the protests were against 11 video game publishers and developers, including some of those already mentioned in this article. The object of contention were the residual rights of some games.