The SAG-AFTRA strike movement launched in Hollywood could extend to video games. Atmosphere of the bush across the Atlantic.
Since July 2023, the American union SAG-AFTRA, which defends actors in the world of television and radio, has been engaged in a broad strike movement. He thus joined the WGA union representing Hollywood screenwriters. This is the first simultaneous strike action by actors and screenwriters since 1960.
Direct consequence of the movement: the production of many films and series is now completely stopped, and the release dates of many works have been postponed. Now, the movement could extend to video games.
Video game players called to join the movement
The management of SAG-AFTRA has unanimously asked players in the video game world to join the movement, as reported CNN. This decision comes ahead of negotiations to resume later in September. From now on, union members will be able to vote for a strike until September 25. Indeed, the contract between the union and the video game producers expired a year ago already, and the negotiations are not progressing while the extension is soon coming to an end.
As for series and films, it is once again the level of remuneration of actors as well as the question of artificial intelligence which are at the center of the debates. SAG-AFTRA is asking for a retroactive increase of 11% and 4% for future years to absorb the weight of inflation.
As indicated CNNthe negotiations in question concern in particular WB Games (mortal kombat), Activision Blizzard (call of duty), Insomniac Games (Spiderman) and Epic Games (Fortnite). A major strike action could delay the release of big titles depending on their production progress. One can imagine that it could also put a brake on the development of certain content. For example, the arrival of a new character in a game, requiring the recording of lines of dialogue by actors.
AI at the center of concerns
Artificial intelligence has quickly crept into the debates between actors and producers of films, series or video games. Advances in AI make it easy to generate a copy of a voice from which we have a good sample. However, there is no better sample than the many hours of recording of an actor lending his voice in a studio in front of a microphone. Actors and actresses therefore seek to obtain protections concerning their work in order to be able to continue to practice their profession.
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