After five weeks on the picket lines against major video game companies, SAG-AFTRA says that the producers of 80 game projects have signed its interim agreement, allowing them to use union voice actors and motion capture performers as the strike continues.
The interim agreement system, unveiled by SAG-AFTRA during last year’s film/TV strike, gives producers who are not part of the companies being struck an opportunity to continue work on their projects and provide more employment opportunities to guild members. To sign on to an interim agreement, the producers must agree to work under the contract terms that SAG-AFTRA most recently proposed to the companies that are signatories to the contract being struck.
While SAG-AFTRA came to terms on the vast majority of bargaining points with the companies signed to the Interactive Media Agreement — including Disney, Activision, Insomniac and WB Games — the two sides were not able to come to terms on protections around artificial intelligence.
SAG-AFTRA maintained that the proposals from the companies only required them to seek consent from guild members to create digital replicas of their voice and movements if the character they were playing had a strong resemblance to the actor, a rule that would have excluded the vast majority of roles from AI protections.
“We applaud those video game companies signing our tiered-budget and interim agreements. Not only are they doing the right thing by their workers, they’re also helping to preserve the human art, ingenuity and creativity that fuels interactive storytelling,” national executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said in a statement. “These agreements signal that the video game companies in the collective bargaining group do not represent the will of the larger video game industry. The many companies that are happy to agree to our A.I. terms prove that these terms are not only reasonable, but feasible and sustainable for businesses.”
While the full list of signees has not been released, SAG-AFTRA said that among those who have signed the interim agreement, which cuts out the likeness loophole, include Lightspeed L.A., the developer of the upcoming open world action game “Last Sentinel.”
Other developers that have signed on include Little Bat Games, which recently released its debut game with the visual novel “Vampire Therapist,” and Studio Wildcard, developers of the survival action series “Ark.”
“This labor action is about creating work with sufficient A.I. protections. The sheer volume of companies that have signed SAG-AFTRA agreements demonstrates how reasonable those protections are. We are thrilled for our actors to continue working under fair union contracts with companies who know how invaluable our performers are to their games,” SAG-AFTRA Interactive Media Agreement Negotiating Committee chair Sarah Elmaleh said.
“Lightspeed L.A. has always recognized and valued the irreplaceable role of talent, which injects creativity, innovation and the human touch into video games. Supporting our cast is the right thing to do and there was never any hesitation to consider the performer protections that anchor this agreement,” Steve Martin, general manager of Lightspeed L.A., said.
While the interim agreement is taking root, there is still a good chance that, given the long production process of video games and loopholes that exempt games that started production prior to September 2023, the SAG-AFTRA strike could take some time. The last video game strike, launched by the union in 2016 over residuals and compensation, lasted just over 11 months.
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