/>iAfter almost 2 years of negotiations over a new interactive media agreement with video game industry giants such as Activision, Electronic Arts, Warner Bros. and Walt Disney Co., video game performers voted to strike as of Friday, July 26, 2024. The crux of the issue being negotiated surrounds artificial intelligence (“AI”) and performers’ fears that its unbridled use could provide game makers with a means to replace them by training AI to replicate an actor’s voice, or to create a digital replica of their likeness without consent and without fair compensation.[1]
This is the second strike for the video game performers under the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Arts (“SAG-AFTRA”) and means another work stoppage for the industry since last year’s dual Hollywood strikes with SAG-AFTRA for film and television performers and the Writers’ Guild of America (“WGA”). Audrey Cooling, the spokesperson for the video game producers that are parties to the Interactive Media Agreement (“IMA”) said in a statement on behalf of the gaming publishers that performers’ fears are displaced as the video game producers and the performers “already found common ground on 24 out of 25 proposals, including historic wage increases and additional safety provisions. Our offer… extends meaningful AI protections that include requiring consent and fair compensation to all performers working under the IMA.”[2] Unfortunately, this impasse brings another waiting game, which hopefully won’t last as long as the 2016 strike.
The key issue, however, is how the IMA defines “performer”. The last IMA negotiated in 2017 covers more than 2,500 “off-camera (voiceover) performers, on-camera (motion capture, stunt) performers, stunt coordinators, singers, dancers, puppeteers, and background performers,” according to the union. However, at a news conference on Thursday, July 25th, SAG-AFTRA’s Chief Contracts Officer Ray Rodriguez said that the gaming industry told them “point blank that they do not necessarily consider everyone who is rendering movement performance to be a performer that is covered by the collective bargaining agreement”. Some of the physical performances are viewed as “data” rather than a performance by an actor.[3]
SAG-AFTRA Strikes: Hollywood Strike v. Video Game Strike
The Hollywood strike rules were far stricter than the guidelines for the video game performer strike. The guidelines actually exempt ongoing work on games that were already in development prior to September 2023, including Grand Theft Auto VI. Additionally, game makers are permitted to sign interim agreements with actors during the strike if they so wish.[4] Nonetheless, this moment will undoubtedly prove to be a moment of alchemy for the video game industry.
Unlike the Hollywood strike, SAG-AFTRA also created a separate contract in February of this year that covered indie and lower-budget video game projects. This tiered-budget independent interactive media agreement contains some of the protections on AI that the video game industry bargaining group rejected.[5]
Similar to productions who were given exemption from the Hollywood SAG-AFTRA strike, the union also announced a side deal with AI voice company Replica Studios in January of 2024 that enables major studios to work with unionized actors to create and license a digital replica of their voice. [6] This side deal also sets regulations that provides performers with the right to opt out of giving Replica Studios a right to perpetually use their voices.
The gaming world is a multi-billion-dollar industry and while AI may seem like a path to increase work and cost efficiencies, it could also lead to more workers sharing in the industry’s profits. Although the video game producers are willing to put protections in place for voice actors in relation to AI, they haven’t agreed to go as far to include other performers, including stunt workers and motion capture artists.[7] Motion capture artists are used to capture facial and body movements that are not necessarily directed by a unit director, rather than capturing facial expressions. Performance actors, on the other hand, are used to capture both facial movements and expressions, and the latter are covered under the new SAG-AFTRA agreement.
SAG-AFTRA has voiced concerns that AI could rid less experienced actors of the opportunity to land smaller background roles, such as non-player characters where they typically pay their dues before landing the more coveted player roles. This was a similar issue raised last summer by background actors in the negotiations between SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP. Ultimately, the AMPTP agreed to give SAG-AFTRA background actors consent and good faith bargaining power if the studio used prior performances to create AI generated alternations and replicas of their members’ likeness or voice.
How Long Might This Strike Last?
The 2023 union strikes lasted about 5 months (about 4 for SAG-AFTRA and about 5 for the WGA) and caused significant financial setbacks in the industry, the reverberations of which are still being felt a year later. The last strike for the video game makers occurred in October of 2016 and didn’t end until nearly a year later.
However, in the present stalemate, where the primary disagreement is on the appropriate use of AI tools like powered voice-cloning and motion-capture tech, it seems unlikely that the 98% of SAG-AFTRA Interactive Media members who voted in favor of the strike will budge anytime soon from their position that all performers, not just voice actors, receive adequate economic and artistic protections under the new deal.
FOOTNOTES
[2] https://variety.com/2024/gaming/news/sag-aftra-video-game-strike-actors-union-1236085195/
[4] https://slate.com/technology/2024/07/video-games-sag-aftra-union-strike-ai-bots.html
