SAG-AFTRA announced via press release that about 80 video game production projects have signed interim agreements protecting workers’ rights when dealing with AI agreements. This ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, which began in mid-July, targets the issues of AI replication of voice and motion capture artists who contribute any form of their likeness to games.
There’s no full available list of games that have signed the agreement, with the only full list existing by way of a finicky project search that seems to only verify if a game project isn’t struck. However, some studios and developers have spoken out after signing the Interim Agreement. In this press release, this includes Studio Wildcard of Ark Survival Evolved and indie studio Little Bat Games.
The biggest signer as of late is Lightspeed LA, a Tencent subsidiary that’s the Chinese supercorp’s first USA AAA game studio, led by former Rockstar San Diego director Steve Martin. The studio’s most anticipated game at the moment is Last Sentinel, an open-world sci-fi action game taking place in a dystopian Tokyo, which was announced at The Game Awards 2023.
“Supporting our cast is the right thing to do and there was never any hesitation to consider the performer protections that anchor this agreement,” Martin said of the agreement.
On the flip side, it seems that the major bargaining group that the strike targets—including such major studios as Activision Productions, Disney Character Voices. Electronic Arts Productions, WB Games, Insomniac Games, and Take 2 Productions—still aren’t budging after nearly two months of protests that followed over 18 months of negotiation attempts.
Per a “comparison chart,” SAG-AFTRA proposals seek to protect the rights of performers for any ongoing use of “digital replicas,” including pay, character affiliation, procedurally generated dialogue, voice blending, use of multiple actors/models per character, and even against unauthorized use for political campaigns.
Those on the other side of the table aim to bend these requirements, including redefining what constitutes a “performer,” who is considered affiliated with a single character, pay and limits of creating “generative artificial intelligence” of a performer, neglecting pay for trailers and demos, and more.
While negotiations with larger studios remain ongoing for this strike, production studios may sign a set of “interim agreements,” whether for original performance acting or localization acting work, stating that the studio agrees to a certain set of guidelines. Actors are permitted to work on projects that either signed these agreements or that still exist under prior valid negotiated conditions.
Recently, in 2023, the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA each went on strike for nearly four overlapping months, both over streaming service residuals and AI protections.
After the 2023 strike ended, many SAG-AFTRA members didn’t feel AI protections were enough, as they supposedly allowed a lot of wiggle room for production studios to hold gigs over actors’ heads for not accepting AI terms. Now, the ongoing video game protests seem to be the union’s strongest action against AI technology abuse.
Strikes like these typically end when the union and the company(s) reach a “tentative agreement,” which is a launching point for more engaged, good-faith contract negotiations.
