SAG-AFTRA’s talks with the video game industry end without resolution

SAG-AFTRA announced Thursday that planned discussions with various gambling industry employers ended quickly and without an agreement. The meetings, which began on Tuesday, were held with the aim of renegotiating the terms of the current interactive media agreement, particularly regarding payment, streaming rights and the use of artificial intelligence. After no agreement could be reached, the following statement was posted on the union’s website:

“SAG-AFTRA and Video Game Employers have completed planned Interactive Media Agreement negotiations. No agreement has been reached and the current agreement remains in effect while the parties make final efforts to reach an agreement.”

SAG-AFTRA recently voted to authorize a strike against ten major gaming industry giants. 98.32% of the union’s over 160,000 members voted in favor of the strike. Should the aforementioned “final attempts to reach an agreement” fail, a strike will almost certainly occur, affecting the following entertainment companies:

• Activision Productions
• Blind light
• Voices of Disney characters
• Electronic Arts
• Epic games
• Formosa Interactive
• Sleepless games
• Take 2 productions
• VoiceWorks Productions
• WB Games

The news follows the announcement that the Writer’s Guild Of America (WGA) strike has ended and union members have reached a tentative agreement with the Alliance Of Motion Pictures And Television Producers following a 148-day strike. The WGA will soon vote on ratifying the agreement.

SAG-AFTRA’s previous strike against gaming companies, which took place from 2016 to 2017, lasted 183 days. As a result of this strike, certain games – such as Life is Strange: Before the Storm – used non-union actors. In this particular case, original Chloe actress Ashly Burch was only allowed to advise the character rather than portray her in the game.