Starting on October 21, the Screen Actors Guild will be beginning their strike against several major game publishers, including EA, WB Games, and Activision-Blizzard. SAG has been fighting for better conditions for a long time and has finally decided to take action against these companies.
The @sagaftra National Board of Directors has set a strike date against video game employers for this Friday, October 21 at 12:01 a.m. pic.twitter.com/ta0mZuT2TJ
— SAG-AFTRA (@sagaftra) October 17, 2016
In 2014, a 20-year-old contract for SAG members expired and the negotiations for a new contract have not gone in the guild’s favor. Game companies want to pay actors less, fine them if their work quality to not up to company standards, and fine SAG if the agent involved in the auditions is not approved. After several months of negotiations, SAG has decided it will no longer work with companies that have these outrageous demands.
The current list of developers to be affected are:
- Activision Productions, Inc.
- Blindlight, LLC
- Corps of Discovery Films, Inc.
- Electronic Arts Productions, Inc.
- Disney Character Voices, Inc.
- Formosa Interactive LLC
- Insomniac Games, Inc.
- Interactive Associates, Inc.
- Take 2 Productions, Inc.
- VoiceWorks Productions, Inc.
- WB Games, Inc.
Activision-Blizzard will be one of the major companies affected by the strike.
The group is demanding limited time and increased pay for actors doing stressful voices, such as long periods of screaming. They also want companies to start telling actors the roles they will be playing prior to their recording sessions.
Until an agreement is reached, all SAG voice actors will not do any voice work for games that started development after February 2015. This will take several big game voice actors out of the picture for a while, but the affected game companies claim that the strike will not have any major impact on upcoming titles.
What do you think? Do you side with the Screen Actor’s Guild, or with the development companies they’re protesting? Let us know down in the comments!
