Gaming Actors Score Massive Win as SAG-AFTRA Close Out 11-Month Strike With New Contract With Major Game Studios

[Cpt.Jank]

SAG-AFTRA workers have officially ended an 11-month-long video game strike and three years of bargaining with major game studios with a new contract that increases compensation for video game workers and establishes new protections from AI. According to the new SAG-AFTRA Interactive Media Agreement, which passed with 95.04% approval, video game performers will receive a 15.17% increase in compensation upon ratification, followed by annual 3% increases for three years starting on November 1, 2025. The agreement also aims to reel in late payment issues, limiting the payment window to 12 business days after services have been rendered.

One of the more contentious issues that was being protested was the increasing use of AI in video games, and to address this, the new agreement requires game studios to get performer consent to use AI to recreate their likeness—for both audio and visual purposes—and it mandates that performers get paid their standard rate when their likeness is recreated by AI for use in a game. There are also workplace safety and comfort provisions, including mandatory rest periods, stipulations for overnight working conditions, a 2× overtime payment rate, and increases to the mandatory contributions to the AFTRA Retirement fund. Overall, much of the agreement aims to make work more sustainable for video game performers. Similar demands are currently being made by the United Video Game Workers Union, which casts a wider net to include programmers and other workers in the video games industry—not just performers.



Ultimately, of the provisions granted by the new agreement, the AI guardrails may be the most significant, since they effectively discourage the use of AI to replace performers, effectively making it so that any games using AI voice acting will be using it to create novel experiences instead of to cut corners or save money. NPCs that use an LLM to "understand" player dialogue and respond naturally, for example, would be one such use case.

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[DeathtoGnomes]

My crystal ball say we will see $100 or more for premium voiced games.

 

[Dr. Dro]

I've been following this closely as it has greatly affected my favorite games, and there is no win to be had here, I can reassure you that much. The silver lining, at least, we know what kind of crooks we are dealing with in the American voice acting industry - and I have nothing nice to say about them.

If I sound like a monster for posting this after you've read an OP that clearly sounds reasonable in the most superficial of glances: congratulations, it might have clicked in your head by now that "fair compensation" and "protecting talent against being replaced by a computer" are nothing but a smoke screen and there is a gold mine of drama underneath.

My crystal ball say we will see $100 or more for premium voiced games.

It's not going to happen. If anything, some of them have already been begging to get their jobs back.

 

[Quicks]

Only fair to pay the people.

Many others are making a fortune for minimal work.

 

[Onasi]

@Dr. Dro
Based take and true. What will happen in the short term is that more studios will make use of non-guild actors. In the longer one - they can all fuck off.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Only fair to pay the people.

Trust me, this is not about payment, this is not about "AI protections", and there has been a LOT of very unprofessional and unpleasant conduct involved.

 

[arbiter]

Trust me, this is not about payment, this is not about "AI protections", and there has been a LOT of very unprofessional and unpleasant conduct involved.

and the part of forcing people company hires as VA's for games be in the union or join the union. That is part they left out from the genshin impact strike. If person was gonna do VA for the game for more then 6 months they wanted them to be forced to join their union. Likely a lot of other things in there as well.

 

[Dr. Dro]

and the part of forcing people company hires as VA's for games be in the union or join the union. That is part they left out from the genshin impact strike. If person was gonna do VA for the game for more then 6 months they wanted them to be forced to join their union. Likely a lot of other things in there as well.

Oh, the whole Taft-Hartley Act BS was but one instance of the lies and misinformation. Their treatment of the new Kinich VA sealed the deal for me. And don't even get me started on the now former Paimon VA. I must have been the one guy who actually liked her, not only as her voice but as a person too. And that's gone.

 

[Solidstate89]

Everyone in here who thinks the voice actors are the reason your games are expensive or are somehow "ripping off" these massive corporations is a god damn fool. Oh yeah, it's the voice actor's fault that they want to be paid enough money to live doing the work they do, not the fault of greedy corporate CEOs who hand themselves multi-million dollar bonuses while they lay off thousands because a game that sold well wasn't the infinite money printing machine their shareholders wanted it to be.

Get real. Corporate executives are not your friend, they'd feed each and every one of you lickspittles into a wood chipper if it meant their stock price went up another quarter of a percent.

 

[Onasi]

@Solidstate89
Literally nobody in the thread even insinuated anything that you are railing against, but do go off. Closest one was the “100 dollars” joke, but that’s all it was - a joke.

 

[Mr. Stein]

Everyone in here who thinks the voice actors are the reason your games are expensive or are somehow "ripping off" these massive corporations is a god damn fool. Oh yeah, it's the voice actor's fault that they want to be paid enough money to live doing the work they do, not the fault of greedy corporate CEOs who hand themselves multi-million dollar bonuses while they lay off thousands because a game that sold well wasn't the infinite money printing machine their shareholders wanted it to be.

Get real. Corporate executives are not your friend, they'd feed each and every one of you lickspittles into a wood chipper if it meant their stock price went up another quarter of a percent.

Corrupt union thugs are not our friend either. Thanks for the insult. Your boos mean nothing to us. We've seen what makes you cheer.

 

[Jewfro]

Corrupt union thugs are not our friend either. Thanks for the insult. Your boos mean nothing to us. We've seen what makes you cheer.

That's a really weird way to say "I dislike unions but I don't know why". Seriously, it's absurd how an agreement to pay people for their work and likeness in an industry known for exploiting individuals who don't have bargaining power is being seen as a bad thing.

 

[TechLurker]

This affected a number of Asian games I enjoy (JP/CN/KR), and ultimately most of them chose to drop SAG-AFTRA VAs in favor of English-speaking foreign or non-SAG-AFTRA VAs with more favorable contracts for both parties (or just remove English Voices outright), as the fine print details of the SAG-AFTRA strike was also trying to lock in exclusivity to only SAG-AFTRA members and a high annual fee paid to SAG-AFTRA, with fines dished out for hiring independent or non-SAG-AFTRA.

At best, this is a farcical win for SAG-AFTRA, and really affects mostly American gaming companies that signed up. It's also worth noting that some Asian gaming studios already have contracts in place with VAs who gave their consent to use their voice with AI to cover for sick days and be appropriately compensated during that period. Already, there's a number of high-profile SAG-AFTRA VAs trying to beg for their jobs back from the Asian companies that recasted them after giving them more than enough time to come back and work.

 

[redeye]

still does not fix the bad ideas that US executive’s have. why is it that european games are better (ok, IMO) (HZD, HFW, CP2077, stellar blade, Myth Black Wukong, Claire obscure, Witcher… etc)

 

[Mr. Stein]

That's a really weird way to say "I dislike unions but I don't know why". Seriously, it's absurd how an agreement to pay people for their work and likeness in an industry known for exploiting individuals who don't have bargaining power is being seen as a bad thing.

I worked for the US government for 34 years. I know more than I want to about how union thugs work. Their job is to make the union more powerful and to funnel money to the democrat party.

 

[Dr. Dro]

That's a really weird way to say "I dislike unions but I don't know why". Seriously, it's absurd how an agreement to pay people for their work and likeness in an industry known for exploiting individuals who don't have bargaining power is being seen as a bad thing.

As repeatedly stated, the "official" reasons for this strike would be valid if there weren't far more spurious reasons behind it. At first pretty much everybody including myself were supportive of these demands. Except it turns out, these weren't actually the goal at all and the façade eventually broke.

I'll assume you're unfamiliar with what's going on behind the scenes. Please look at Mujin's two videos or Hero Hei's nearly 50 videos on it and then tell me if your opinion hasn't changed.

 

[Solidstate89]

Corrupt union thugs are not our friend either. Thanks for the insult. Your boos mean nothing to us. We've seen what makes you cheer.

Licking the boots won't save you from being stomped on.

 

[Imouto]

It's hard to find someone more brainwashed than a worker who's against unions.

 

[Dr. Dro]

It's hard to find someone more brainwashed than a worker who's against unions.

Normally, I'd be on board. However, SAG-AFTRA is an union worth being against.

 

[Scircura]

Please look at Mujin's two videos

I did it! I listened to an insufferable narration of other people's tweet feuds for an hour. (I had to speed through, for my own sanity, so maybe it was 15 minutes realtime.) And I learned nothing substantive. What was the narrator's contribution, other than to read one side of the feud with a credulous voice and the other with a dismissive voice? Emotive speaking is not an argument. Best I can tell, both sides of the feud had reasonable opinions.

I don't have a strong alignment on SAG-AFTRA, or the strike, or unions. I think existing US law protects actors from having their likeness copied, but it's good to see that particular restriction reinforced in contracts. I think generative AI can only be defeated by its own mediocrity. But it's likely that most development will eventually choose gen-AI over human assets, just like most mass-produced food ends up using high fructose corn syrup as a sweetener over honey. Consumers mostly care about price over quality.

 

[arbiter]

It's hard to find someone more brainwashed than a worker who's against unions.

Calling someone against a union as "brainwashed" sounds like just that cause they are against a unions. There is plenty of examples of unions that are horrible all around and do far more harm to workers AND the business. Case in point is UAW had so much power they bullied automakers in to contracts that give out insane level of benefit that in case they called GM Generous Motors cause how much they were forced to pay out then 08 happened and that contract pretty much ended GM as it was. Teachers unions are another classic one that cause more harm as they can't get rid of bad teachers cause contract gives them power to stop the school from firing them.

Point is don't assume cause someone against union is dumb they could had a lot of issues while in one or saw how bad some are very corrupt. Some unions are good just like some are bad. The ones that end up bad are ones that gain the power to force company in to unreasonable terms.

 

[Dr. Dro]

I think generative AI can only be defeated by its own mediocrity.

You definitely got what's important across. Good read:

AI Voiceover's Fatal Flaw - J. Michael Collins

Let’s get something straight upfront: Anyone who says AI isn’t good enough to replicate most voiceover tasks doesn’t understand, or hasn’t heard, the technology. It’s pretty flipping good, and can maintain quality longer than it could before, (though still not with enough consistency to be on...

www.jmcvoiceover.com

 

[Imouto]

Calling someone against a union as "brainwashed" sounds like just that cause they are against a unions. There is plenty of examples of unions that are horrible all around and do far more harm to workers AND the business. Case in point is UAW had so much power they bullied automakers in to contracts that give out insane level of benefit that in case they called GM Generous Motors cause how much they were forced to pay out then 08 happened and that contract pretty much ended GM as it was. Teachers unions are another classic one that cause more harm as they can't get rid of bad teachers cause contract gives them power to stop the school from firing them.

Point is don't assume cause someone against union is dumb they could had a lot of issues while in one or saw how bad some are very corrupt. Some unions are good just like some are bad. The ones that end up bad are ones that gain the power to force company in to unreasonable terms.

Unions are the reason you have a 40 hour week (or even less in more civilized parts of the world and fighting to reduce them). One month off a year. Holidays. Rests. Child labour is banned. There are safety regulations. You have the right to go on strike. And the list goes on.

So yeah, people against unions are throughly brainwashed and you can tell the second they open their mouth because none of their arguments hold any water.

 

[arbiter]

Unions are the reason you have a 40 hour week (or even less in more civilized parts of the world and fighting to reduce them). One month off a year. Holidays. Rests. Child labour is banned. There are safety regulations. You have the right to go on strike. And the list goes on.

So yeah, people against unions are throughly brainwashed and you can tell the second they open their mouth because none of their arguments hold any water.

just cause they did something good a long time ago doesn't mean current iteration of them is still good. Never assume that corruption doesn't take over. "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

 

[Imouto]

just cause they did something good a long time ago doesn't mean current iteration of them is still good. Never assume that corruption doesn't take over. "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Textbook example.