No Deal Yet: SAG-AFTRA Remains On Strike Against Major Video Game Developers As Parties Look To Schedule More Talks
Katie Campione
Sat 26 October 2024
SAG-AFTRA will remain on strike against the major video game companies, as talks on a new deal have been extended once again.
Negotiations on a new Interactive Media Agreement resumed on Wednesday, marking the first official bargaining dates between the two parties since SAG-AFTRA called a strike in July. Bargaining has continued off-and-on, but the sides have been operating without a contract since November 2022.
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So far, no new dates have been announced, and the strike remains in effect until a new deal is made.
Artificial intelligence has been and continues to be the big sticking point in these negotiations. The contract covers voice and performance-capture talent on video games, and the union has repeatedly sounded the alarm on how AI could negatively impact these professions.
Throughout the past three months, SAG-AFTRA has held intermittent pickets at several of the video game companies’ Los Angeles offices, including WB Games and Disney Character Voices. The union hasn’t announced any further pickets, with the last one occurring last week, just before talks resumed.
In another blow to the major companies, the union has been inking deals with more than 100 other video game companies and developers, which have agreed to the terms that SAG-AFTRA claims to also be proposing to this 10-member bargaining unit of the majors.
The gamer companies being struck are Activision Productions, Blindlight, Disney Character Voices, Electronic Arts Productions, Formosa Interactive, Insomniac Games, Llama Productions, Take 2 Productions and WB Games.
In its most recent statement to Deadline, a spokesperson for the video game companies pushed back on SAG-AFTRA’s characterization of the talks, saying the companies “have worked hard to deliver proposals with reasonable terms that protect the rights of performers while ensuring we can continue to use the most advanced technology to create great entertainment experiences for fans.”
Video Game Actors Strike Continues as SAG-AFTRA Extends Contract Negotiations
Jennifer Maas
Jennifer Maas
VARIETY
Sat 26 October 2024
SAG-AFTRA’s strike against major video game publishers will continue, as the actors union has extended contract negotiations with the employers. This comes after an inability to resolve the ongoing dispute over its Interactive Media Agreement after three days of scheduled talks concluded this week.
Per SAG-AFTRA, the new dates for returning to the table with the video game companies’ bargaining committee will be announced as soon as they are confirmed.
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Prior to returning to the table with the corporate gaming side Wednesday, SAG-AFTRA announced more than 120 video game titles had signed either SAG-AFTRA’s proposed Interim Media Agreement or the indie developer-focused Tiered-Budget Independent Interactive Agreement, as the strike is largely handled on a title by title basis rather than studio by studio.
According to the union, “The SAG-AFTRA strike against all signatories to the Interactive Media Agreement began in July and remains in effect. No further comment is available at this time.”
Companies included in the video game companies’ bargaining committee are Activision Productions, Blindlight, Disney Character Voices, Electronic Arts Productions, Formosa Interactive, Insomniac Games, Llama Productions, Take 2 Productions and WB Games.
The ongoing sticking point between SAG-AFTRA and the companies, which have reached agreement on 24 items in a 25-item proposal, surrounds uses of generative A.I. in games, particularly in regard to motion and performance capture.
SAG-AFTRA executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland previously told Variety that the reasoning given by video game publishers as to why they cannot agree to the A.I. language regarding motion and performance capture is unfounded. Publishers argue that motion capture work is largely used as an amalgamation of actors’ performances in video games and not something producers are capable of accounting for when it comes to compensation.
At that time, Crabtree-Ireland also said that while a holiday season boycott of the gaming companies has not been called, that option is “a tool that’s in our toolkit” for the SAG-AFTRA side as the strike continues.
Variety
Sat 26 October 2024
SAG-AFTRA’s strike against major video game publishers will continue, as the actors union has extended contract negotiations with the employers. This comes after an inability to resolve the ongoing dispute over its Interactive Media Agreement after three days of scheduled talks concluded this week.
Per SAG-AFTRA, the new dates for returning to the table with the video game companies’ bargaining committee will be announced as soon as they are confirmed.
More from Variety
Jane Fonda to Receive SAG-AFTRA's Life Achievement Honor at the 2025 SAG Awards
SAG-AFTRA Steps Up Advocacy Efforts for Disabled Performers With 'Time to Get Real' Video Series
SAG-AFTRA's Duncan Crabtree-Ireland on Potential for Video Game Publisher Holiday Season Boycott Amid Strike: 'It's a Tool That's in Our Toolkit'
Prior to returning to the table with the corporate gaming side Wednesday, SAG-AFTRA announced more than 120 video game titles had signed either SAG-AFTRA’s proposed Interim Media Agreement or the indie developer-focused Tiered-Budget Independent Interactive Agreement, as the strike is largely handled on a title by title basis rather than studio by studio.
According to the union, “The SAG-AFTRA strike against all signatories to the Interactive Media Agreement began in July and remains in effect. No further comment is available at this time.”
Companies included in the video game companies’ bargaining committee are Activision Productions, Blindlight, Disney Character Voices, Electronic Arts Productions, Formosa Interactive, Insomniac Games, Llama Productions, Take 2 Productions and WB Games.
The ongoing sticking point between SAG-AFTRA and the companies, which have reached agreement on 24 items in a 25-item proposal, surrounds uses of generative A.I. in games, particularly in regard to motion and performance capture.
SAG-AFTRA executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland previously told Variety that the reasoning given by video game publishers as to why they cannot agree to the A.I. language regarding motion and performance capture is unfounded. Publishers argue that motion capture work is largely used as an amalgamation of actors’ performances in video games and not something producers are capable of accounting for when it comes to compensation.
At that time, Crabtree-Ireland also said that while a holiday season boycott of the gaming companies has not been called, that option is “a tool that’s in our toolkit” for the SAG-AFTRA side as the strike continues.
Variety
SAG-AFTRA Video Game Negotiations Extended Amid Strike
Katie Kilkenny
Sat 26 October 2024
SAG-AFTRA and a coalition of video game companies have extended negotiations after returning to talks for three days but failing to reach a deal.
The union announced the decision on Saturday, adding that dates were not yet set and would later be announced. Meanwhile, the union’s strike against employers signed to its Interactive Media Agreement -— which is nearing its 100-day mark — continues.
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“With tentative agreements on 24 out of 25 proposals, we are optimistic about reaching a final agreement soon as negotiations continue,” a representative for the companies told The Hollywood Reporter.
The union’s performers have been striking Activision Productions Inc., Disney Character Voices Inc., Electronic Arts Productions Inc., Insomniac Games Inc., Take 2 Productions Inc., WB Games Inc., Blindlight LLC, Formosa Interactive LLC and Llama Productions LLC since July 26 as the labor group has clashed with the employers over AI provisions in its contract.
The two sides returned to the negotiations table in person on Oct. 23 in an attempt to reach a deal. In the meantime, the union announced the day prior that more than 120 games from 49 companies had signed interim agreements or tiered-budget agreements with the union, essentially agreeing to the union’s AI asks. Union performers can work under titles that are signatory to those contracts during the work stoppage.
During the strike, SAG-AFTRA has called an additional work stoppage against marquee title League of Legends after claiming that producer Formosa Interactive “tried to subvert” the strike on an unnamed game by attempting to hire nonunion performers through a shell company. Formosa Group has said it “fully reject[s]” the allegations. An unfair labor practice charge filed with the National Labor Relations Board has not yet been resolved.
SAG-AFTRA’s chief contracts officer Ray Rodriguez is heading up negotiations for the union, while Kauff McGuire & Margolis managing partner William E. Zuckerman is representing the employers.
SAG-AFTRA Documentary in the Works From ‘This Changes Everything’ Filmmakers (Exclusive)
Katie Kilkenny
Fri 25 October 2024
The filmmakers behind prominent documentaries on casting directors and the #MeToo movement have set their sights on another Hollywood subject: the evolution of the performers’ union SAG-AFTRA.
Director-producer Tom Donahue and producer Ilan Arboleda are working on a film about the transformation of the labor organization union between 2008, when the Writers Guild of America struck film and television studios and the Screen Actors Guild considered (but ultimately did not realize) their own work stoppage, and 2024, in the aftermath of the union’s landmark 118-day actors’ strike. The film will represent the culmination of interviews that have spanned a decade conducted by the filmmakers, whose project will additionally cover the union’s history and its longtime fight to create a middle class of actors, they shared with The Hollywood Reporter.
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With two previous projects under their CreativeChaos vmg banner, the filmmaking team has leveraged Hollywood narratives to tell larger stories about social issues in America: 2018’s This Changes Everything explored gender inequality in the workplace, while 2012’s Casting By tackled a female-dominated field that wasn’t as celebrated as other crafts. With this upcoming film, the filmmakers want to use SAG-AFTRA as a means to discuss “the destruction of the middle class in America because of the destruction of the unions in America,” says Donahue.
The filmmakers got to work on the subject in 2011, after the Screen Actors Guild overhauled its leadership in the wake of a failed strike authorization attempt by former president Alan Rosenberg. Arboleda and Donahue began filming interviews with Rosenberg and the leaders of the political faction he was associated with, Membership First, followed by interviews with its rival group, Unite for Strength. The team then “captured the merger as it happened” between the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Radio and Television Artists in 2012, says Arboleda.
The filmmakers put the project on the shelf as they pursued other films, but picked it up again after the 2023 actors’ strike. They plan on documenting how multiple contract negotiation cycles set the stage for the ultimate 118-day work stoppage and the impact that president Fran Drescher had on the union. They also plan on showing how the rise of “new media” (streaming entertainment) changed rates and residuals for performers. Says Arboleda of resuming the project after so many years, “Time is on our side with this, and the amount of time it took was actually almost necessary to be able to see this long-view lens of the problem.”
Drescher and current national executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland have agreed to sit for interviews with the filmmakers. Says Drescher in a statement, “SAG-AFTRA’s ‘Hot Labor Summer’ of 2023 is one of the most important chapters in entertainment industry history. This is a critical story that needs to be told.” Adds Crabtree-Ireland, “Our fight for our members inspired workers everywhere and is a story that deserves to be told and amplified in the decades ahead.”
The filmmakers previously logged interviews with former labor leaders Ken Howard, Roberta Reardon and Ed Asner as well as union insiders and observers like Martin Sheen, Amy Aquino, David White, Rebecca Damon, Matthew Kimbrough, David Prindle and former Hollywood Reporter journalist Jonathan Handel, among others. The filmmakers are currently aiming to finish the film in mid-2026.
Katie Kilkenny
Fri 25 October 2024
The filmmakers behind prominent documentaries on casting directors and the #MeToo movement have set their sights on another Hollywood subject: the evolution of the performers’ union SAG-AFTRA.
Director-producer Tom Donahue and producer Ilan Arboleda are working on a film about the transformation of the labor organization union between 2008, when the Writers Guild of America struck film and television studios and the Screen Actors Guild considered (but ultimately did not realize) their own work stoppage, and 2024, in the aftermath of the union’s landmark 118-day actors’ strike. The film will represent the culmination of interviews that have spanned a decade conducted by the filmmakers, whose project will additionally cover the union’s history and its longtime fight to create a middle class of actors, they shared with The Hollywood Reporter.
More from The Hollywood Reporter
SAG-AFTRA Video Game Negotiations Extended Amid Strike
After Set Injuries on an Eddie Murphy Movie, Investigation Doesn't Find Safety Violations
Workers Launch Union Drive at 'Summer of Soul' Producer RadicalMedia
With two previous projects under their CreativeChaos vmg banner, the filmmaking team has leveraged Hollywood narratives to tell larger stories about social issues in America: 2018’s This Changes Everything explored gender inequality in the workplace, while 2012’s Casting By tackled a female-dominated field that wasn’t as celebrated as other crafts. With this upcoming film, the filmmakers want to use SAG-AFTRA as a means to discuss “the destruction of the middle class in America because of the destruction of the unions in America,” says Donahue.
The filmmakers got to work on the subject in 2011, after the Screen Actors Guild overhauled its leadership in the wake of a failed strike authorization attempt by former president Alan Rosenberg. Arboleda and Donahue began filming interviews with Rosenberg and the leaders of the political faction he was associated with, Membership First, followed by interviews with its rival group, Unite for Strength. The team then “captured the merger as it happened” between the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Radio and Television Artists in 2012, says Arboleda.
The filmmakers put the project on the shelf as they pursued other films, but picked it up again after the 2023 actors’ strike. They plan on documenting how multiple contract negotiation cycles set the stage for the ultimate 118-day work stoppage and the impact that president Fran Drescher had on the union. They also plan on showing how the rise of “new media” (streaming entertainment) changed rates and residuals for performers. Says Arboleda of resuming the project after so many years, “Time is on our side with this, and the amount of time it took was actually almost necessary to be able to see this long-view lens of the problem.”
Drescher and current national executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland have agreed to sit for interviews with the filmmakers. Says Drescher in a statement, “SAG-AFTRA’s ‘Hot Labor Summer’ of 2023 is one of the most important chapters in entertainment industry history. This is a critical story that needs to be told.” Adds Crabtree-Ireland, “Our fight for our members inspired workers everywhere and is a story that deserves to be told and amplified in the decades ahead.”
The filmmakers previously logged interviews with former labor leaders Ken Howard, Roberta Reardon and Ed Asner as well as union insiders and observers like Martin Sheen, Amy Aquino, David White, Rebecca Damon, Matthew Kimbrough, David Prindle and former Hollywood Reporter journalist Jonathan Handel, among others. The filmmakers are currently aiming to finish the film in mid-2026.
The Hollywood Reporter
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