Just over a year ago, the performers in SAG-AFTRA went on strike against the major Hollywood studios and streamers over a variety of issues including a lack of AI protections. Now, the actors are on strike again against video game studios whom they claim have refused to offer the same AI protections that SAG-AFTRA secured following last year’s strike.
“We’ve made deals with the studios and streamers,” said SAG-AFTRA national executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland during an interview with the Associated Press. “We’ve made deals without a strike with the major record labels and with countless other employers, which provide for informed consent and fair compensation for our members. And yet, for some reason, the video game companies refuse to do that and that’s what’s going to be their undoing.”
SAG-AFTRA members authorized a strike last week after negotiations between the union and the video game publishers dragged on for 18 months without a resolution. Some of the studios that the actors reached deals with last year, including Warner Bros. and Disney, have video game divisions as well. But that hasn’t led to any movement on a new protections for the actors who lend their voices and likenesses to video games.
Until the strike is settled, SAG-AFTRA performers will not be able to perform any voiceover work for the video game companies. And to kick off the first major picket of the strike, the actors are protesting in front of Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank. That’s where many of them spent a long hot summer in 2023 before a deal was finally reached for film and television performers the following fall.
