Video game actor strike “likely” happening soon, SAG-AFTRA says

Nobody loves sequels like the video game industry—which might explain why it’s seemingly careening toward a follow-up to one of the biggest pop culture events of 2023: The SAG-AFTRA strike that shut down Hollywood for a massive 118 days. That’s per SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director/That Guy Who’s Always Standing With Fran Drescher In Press Conferences Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, who said as SXSW this weekend that a strike between video game companies and video game actors is now looking “likely” after a year of apparently less-than-fruitful negotiations.

Wouldn’t you know it, the sticking point appears to be artificial intelligence, which is primed to do all sorts of really, let’s call them “interesting”, things to the world of video game development. (Studio heads have been drooling over the idea of AI-generated games that supposedly “make themselves” for years at this point.) Specifically, Crabtree-Ireland is now suggesting he think that there’s a “50-50" or more chance the union will go on strike, potentially impacting any number of video games that rely on dozens of hours of voice lines, motion capture, and more in order to have their proper narrative impact.

News of the pending possible strikes comes after what was generally seen as a banner year for video game acting—with performers like The Green Knight’s Ralph Ineson drawing rave reviews for performances in Final Fantasy XVI and Diablo 4, and huge amounts of attention falling on the cast of Baldur’s Gate III for their work in bringing that game’s rich, perverse fantasy world to life. Video game acting wasn’t affected by last year’s strikes, because that work is covered under a separate contract, but Crabtree-Ireland says that a strike could come in “the next four to six weeks” if agreements on AI can’t be reached, potentially putting the games industry in the same “playing catch-up” boat a few years down the line that production-starved film and TV studios are in right now.

[via Variety]