Voice Actors End 11-Month Strike Against Video Game Companies
The Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, or SAG-AFTRA, ended their 11-month strike against big-name video game companies as both parties reached a tentative agreement last weekend.
According to Electronic Arts, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, and Take-Two Interactive along with third-party companies Blindlight and VoiceWorks Productions.
The deal includes promises to work with voice actors on the matters of vocal stress and project/role transparency, along with a proposed structure for secondary compensation based on the number of recording sessions a voice actor works on rather than on sales.
The deal is yet to be reviewed and signed by SAG-AFTRA but it seems that they’re happy with how things turned out. “This is an important advance in this critical industry space,” said SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris. “We secured a number of gains including for the first time, a secondary payment structure which was one of the ’ key concerns.”
Keythe Farley, the SAG-AFTRA negotiators chair, adds that, “The bonus payments we have now are significantly larger now than what we had 11 months ago. And the existence of additional payments beyond your session fee is in the video game world for good, both in our high-budget and independent promulgated agreements.”
The SAG-AFTRA National Board will be reviewing the agreement at its October meeting.
