SAG-AFTRA Says It’s Still ‘Frustratingly Far Apart’ From Games Industry Bargaining Group on AI Protections – IGN
The Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) has issued an update to its members on the status of negotiations over video game actor AI protections, saying that while progress has been made, it is still “frustratingly far apart” with the industry bargaining group on key issues.The guild has shared a chart demonstrating the differences between its own proposals and those of the games industry bargaining group, which consists of representatives from most major AAA gaming companies. Per SAG-AFTRA’s comparison, the following issues remain at large:That’s a long list, but the chart does make clear that the two groups have come to tentative agreements on a number of other issues, such as bonus pay, dispute resolution, certain elements of minimum compensation, requirement for consent, certain disclosures made to performers, and more. But SAG-AFTRA’s letter to members expresses concern that the bargaining employers are incorrectly conveying to members that the two groups are close to a deal, when SAG-AFTRA does not believe they are. As SAG-AFTRA national executive director and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland wrote to members:In response, Audrey Cooling, spokesperson for the video game industry bargaining group, issued the following statement:The SAG-AFTRA video game strike has been going on for eight months now, and was instigated specifically due to a lack of agreement on AI provisions while 24 out of 25 other contract proposals had been affirmed by both sides. While at first it was difficult to tell exactly how it would affect games actually in our hands, we’re starting to see the impacts visibly across the industry. Players have reported that a number of ongoing games such as Destiny 2 and World of Warcraft appear to have certain NPCs left unvoiced in otherwise voiced scenes, likely due to the strike. Late last year, SAG-AFTRA struck League of Legends after Riot allegedly tried to subvert the strike by canceling a game in response., and Activision confirmed Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 characters were recast after players expressed concern about new voices.And just today, two Zenless Zone Zero voice actors revealed that they learned they’d been replaced when they saw the game’s latest patch notes.Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
