Voice actors for video games may be following TV and movie actors to the picket line.
Driving the news: SAG-AFTRA, the union that has a contract with leading gaming companies for actors who do voice or performance acting for video games, called for a strike Friday, citing lack of progress in renegotiating a contract that expired last November.
The union said Friday that its board has unanimously agreed to ask its members to vote for a strike by Sept. 25.
Details: The union is calling for a retroactive 11% wage increase, on-set medics for hazardous performance capture, and protections against the use of generative AI to replace working actors.
Be smart: While actors who contribute to video games seldom appear as themselves, on camera in a game, they regularly lend their voices to game characters. Many also have their facial and body movements captured to animate the roles they portray.
Actors have been sounding alarms about the potential for generative AI to clone their voices and speak lines for them, without them getting paid.
Strike Summer continues.
One of the requests is for BASIC SAFETY REQUIREMENTS. Like medics, for stunts, rest breaks for work - and yes, ising voice the way voice actors do IS strenuous and risks injury if overworked. So yes, please. Make them renegotiate.
One of the companies they name is Formosa… the one that handles the Genshin English VA and which is responsible for those sometimes questionable voice directions… and which recently was exposed by desperate VAs for not paying them on time. For work done LAST YEAR. Ao yes. STRIKE IF NEEDED, PLEASE.
