SAG-AFTRA calls ‘huge win’ as 80 games agree to the union’s AI terms

Following the news about Lightspeed L.A. signing on to SAG-AFTRA’s Interim Interactive Media Agreement to employ union talent in Last Sentinel (and future games), the organization is celebrating a “huge win” in announcing 80 games have followed suit. The interim agreements allow union workers to ply their trade during the larger strike, which has been ongoing since July.

In a statement provided by the union, development director at Studio Wildcard Jeremy Stieglitz said “Studio Wildcard partners with production company Noah Protocol for all of its SAG-AFTRA member video game voice recordings, in ARK Survival Evolved and beyond. SAG-AFTRA has enabled us to work with top-tier talent using standardized union agreements, which has been a huge benefit to the quality and consistency of voicework in our games.”

SAG-AFTRA’s national executive director & chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said “We applaud those video game companies signing our tiered-budget and interim agreements. Not only are they doing the right thing by their workers, they’re also helping to preserve the human art, ingenuity and creativity that fuels interactive storytelling. These agreements signal that the video game companies in the collective bargaining group do not represent the will of the larger video game industry. The many companies that are happy to agree to our A.I. terms prove that these terms are not only reasonable, but feasible and sustainable for businesses.”

The union’s statement also includes a note that some games that actually fall outside of the strike order have “voluntarily signed on to the agreements,” including some projects that have finished production and signed the Interim Agreement to “protect past and future performances.”

The union authorized the strike on July 26, after negotiations stalled out without a deal. As is evident in the quotes above and our reporting on the strike, chief among the members’ concerns (and a large reason for the strike itself) are guaranteed protections against the use of unethical genAI practices. Performers are essentially worried that developers could use assets recorded from a performance without the performer’s consent or future compensation, creating a profound chilling effect on labor.

The Interim Interactive Media Agreement that the dozens of developers have signed has those protections in place.

What’s the difference between this SAG-AFTRA strike and the 2017 strike?SAG-AFTRA’s success in signing these deals shows that the union has learned a lot since its previous strike in 2017. At that time the union struggled to apply pressure at the negotiating table, seemingly because they lacked the ability to slow down production that they might in TV and film. Actors were putting themselves out of work while development continued.

Now, the union is showing it can provide work for its employees under the new contract, and studios have to decide if refusing to negotiate will have the power it did before. Is it worth losing out on talent like Roger Craig Smith or Debra Wilson to your competition, who’ve signed AI protections you’re quibbling over?

It will be up to them to decide.

About the Authors

Editor-in-Chief, GameDeveloper.com

Danielle is the editor-in-chief of Game Developer, with previous editorial posts at Fanbyte, VICE, and Polygon. She’s also a lecturer in game design at the Berklee College of Music, and a hobbyist game developer in her spare time.

Senior Editor, GameDeveloper.com

Bryant Francis is a writer, journalist, and narrative designer based in Boston, MA. He currently writes for Game Developer, a leading B2B publication for the video game industry. His credits include Proxy Studios’ upcoming 4X strategy game Zephon and Amplitude Studio’s 2017 game Endless Space 2.