The actors picked up the picket signs again. But this time, members of the Screen Actors Guild went on strike against the video game industry after negotiations for a new contract to govern interactive media and video games failed. The guild began a strike on Friday, July 26, preventing more than 160,000 SAG-AFTRA members from accepting new video game projects and hampering games already in development by everyone from the largest publishers to the smallest independent studios.
Negotiations broke down amid disagreements over worker protections for artificial intelligence. Actors union SAG-AFTRA negotiates the terms of the Interactive Media Agreement (IMA) with a bargaining committee (representing a total of 30 signatories) made up of video game publishers including Activision, Take-Two, Insomniac Games, WB Games and others. While SAG-AFTRA and the video game bargaining group were able to agree on many proposals, artificial intelligence remained the final stumbling block leading to the strike.
SAG-AFTRA’s provisions on artificial intelligence include digital reproductions of the voices and movements of performers (or using existing performances as a basis to create new performances without the original performers) and the use of generative artificial intelligence to create new performances without any initial input. Create performances to manage situations. However, negotiating firms are divided over which types of performers should qualify for AI protections, according to SAG-AFTRA.
Ray Rodriguez, chief contract officer for SAG-AFTRA, said the negotiating companies initially wanted protections for voice performers, not action performers. “So anyone who does stunts or creature shows, all of those people would be unprotected at the initiative of their employer,” Rodriguez said in an interview. as a result of,
Rodriguez said the companies later extended protection to action performers, but only if “the performers are identifiable in the output of the AI digital replica.”
SAG-AFTRA rejected the proposal because it would have excluded most sports performances. “Their proposal will exclude anything that looks and sounds different than mine,” Andi Norris, a member of SAG-AFTRA’s IMA negotiating committee, said in a news release. “[The proposal] would leave action experts, including stunts, completely out in the cold and replaced by soulless synthetic performers who have been trained to perform our actual acts.
Bargain Games argued that the terms were sufficient and required the actors’ approval. “Our proposal directly responds to SAG-AFTRA’s concerns and expands meaningful AI protections, including requiring consent and fair compensation for all performers working under the IMA. These provisions are among the strictest in the entertainment industry. one. edge.
SAG-AFTRA’s strike rules include numerous exceptions for affected companies and jobs, making it difficult to understand the true scope of the strike, especially the games it affects.
For example, work completed under SAG-AFTRA’s Tiered Budget Independent Interactive Media Agreement or Temporary Interactive Media Agreement is exempt from the strike. In addition, a specific provision in the IMA called “P.S. VI” grants exemptions for games produced before August 2023. Grand Theft Auto VI Not considered work on strike. However, members of the SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee encouraged others not to get involved in the development of Game Six.
“Additional Letter VI allows, but does not require, performers to provide services during the strike,” Sarah Elmaleh, a video game performer and chair of the SAG-AFTRA IMA bargaining committee, said in a TikTok video. “This language is in our contract for one reason only, and that is to undermine our union’s most valuable tool: the strike.”
The last SAG-AFTRA video game strike, in 2016, lasted 11 months and resulted in fixed pay increases for performers, improved safety on set, and better supervision to prevent vocal stress for voiceover performers.
