Video game actors, with many non-video game SAG-AFTRA supporters, walked the picket line at Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank on Thursday, Aug 1, 2024. — Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times/TNS
Performers union SAG-AFTRA and the major gaming companies are returning to the bargaining table for the first time since video game actors went on strike in July.
The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the game developers released a joint statement on Tuesday announcing that the parties are set to resume negotiations on Oct 23.
The companies represented in the bargaining room will include Activision Productions Inc., Blindlight LLC, Disney Character Voices Inc., Electronic Arts Productions Inc., Formosa Interactive LLC, Insomniac Games Inc., Llama Productions LLC, Take 2 Productions Inc. and WB Games Inc.
Roughly 2,600 performers doing voice-over and motion-capture work in the video game industry have been on strike since contract negotiations broke down over artificial intelligence protections.
The actors are seeking a contract that would require game developers to notify them, inform them about how their work will be used and obtain their consent before replicating their voices or likenesses with AI.
Not all games are subject to the walkout, but SAG-AFTRA expanded the scope of the work stoppage last month to include "League of Legends." The union un-exempted the popular computer game from the strike in an effort to punish audio company Formosa Interactive for allegedly violating terms of the walkout.
Formosa – which provides voice-over services to "League of Legends," according to SAG-AFTRA – denied the union's allegations after the organisation filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board.
Since the work stoppage began, the makers of at least 80 games have reached side deals with SAG-AFTRA, agreeing to follow the union's AI rules in exchange for a strike pardon.
"The sheer volume of companies that have signed SAG-AFTRA agreements demonstrates how reasonable those protections are," Sarah Elmaleh, chair of SAG-AFTRA's video game negotiating committee, said last month in a statement.
The larger interactive media agreement between the union and the game companies expired in November 2022. – Los Angeles Times/Tribune News Service
