2016–2017 video game voice actor strike

Around a quarter of video games use some type of acting, either as live actors for full motion video, voice actors, or stunt actors for motion capture. Within the United States, several of these actors are members of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) or American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), which merged into SAG-AFTRA in October 2012. The merged union has around 165,000 members as of 2016, with about 6,000 members that perform regularly for video games. As early as the 1990s, these unions had developed Interactive Media Agreements with the video game industry to set standard rates for a typical four-hour recording session; in 2005, this was about $759, increasing to about $800–825 in 2013. As early as 2008, discussions and arguments from the actors' unions stated that the video game industry should pay residuals on sales to actors, seeking equality with other entertainment industries with the potential for a strike action if the industry did not agree. More pay was negotiated in June 2005 and informing actors of "vocally stressful work" was negotiated in October 2009. Michael Hollick stated that he had only been paid about $100,000 for voicing Niko Bellic, the main character of Grand Theft Auto IV (2008), which earned than $600 million within its first three weeks of release. Despite this discussion, SAG-AFTRA and the industry negotiated continuations on the Interactive Media Agreement without the inclusion of residuals; in the most recent successful negotiation, to extend the Interactive Media Agreement through 2014, the two sides agreed to account for additional session fees for actors in games designed for cloud gaming. ==2015–2016 negotiations==

With the Interactive Media Agreement to expire by the end of 2014, SAG-AFTRA and representatives of the video game industry began negotiating new agreement terms in late 2014. The parties had not come to an agreement when the Agreement expired, but the union members agreed to continue to provide acting work at the existing rates in good faith while negotiations continued. Meetings were held between parties in February and June 2015. At these meetings, the SAG-AFTRA representatives started pushing for inclusion of residual payments, stating that the video game industry now has the ability to pay such residuals because it "has grown, boomed and morphed into something bigger and lucrative than any other segment of the entertainment industry, and it continues to do so". The union sought "performance bonuses" that would earn actors an additional $825 for each session they did on a game for every 2 million copies of that game sold, up to 8 million copies. The industry stated they were concerned that this type of payment structure would be financially harmful. The union said that they do not want to force new OSHA-driven regulations on the industry but considered this as a point of last resort if the video game industry did not help alleviate this situation. Even after actors have accepted their part, they may not have been told any details outside fundamental aspects of the character they are to voice or perform as, and with auditions and recording sessions that occur through email and remote communications, the actors could not inquire about the role, leaving them unprepared. In some cases, voice actors were not told what game they have performed for, only to discover their involvement after a game is published, making it difficult to maintain a professional resume for other gigs. Negotiations continued into 2016. Alongside the main negotiations for the Interactive Media Agreement renewal, SAG-AFTRA had started discussions to craft a special "low budget" agreement for union voice actors, defined for games with less than a $250,000 production budget, such as most indie games. The terms of this agreement addressed similar points as the broader Interactive Media Agreement negotiations, including dealing with "vocally stressful" roles, and would offer performance bonuses for every 500,000 units sold, up to 2 million units. By October 2016, the two sides had agreed to a 9% increase in the base session fee, but still stood at odds on the issues of residuals. While SAG-AFTRA still offered their session payment plan based on copies sold, the video game industry offered an up-front sliding-scale bonus based on how many sessions that actor performed for the game, starting at $50 for a single session and up to $950 for eight or more sessions. This bonus would be paid upfront to actors in lieu of the residuals. Analysts believed that for a profitable video game (one exceeding $2 million in revenue or more), the financial terms of both SAG-AFTRA's and the industry's plans were nearly on financial equity. SAG-AFTRA considered that the industry's approach was a "freeloader model of compensation", and did not consider it suitable for its members. ==2016–2017 strike==

With failure to come to agreement on this language, SAG-AFTRA used the previous authorization from its membership to issue a strike on October 21, 2016. The strike action targeted 11 companies: Activision Publishing, Blindlight, Corps of Discovery Films, Disney Character Voices, Electronic Arts, Formosa Interactive, Insomniac Games, Interactive Associates, Take 2 Interactive, VoiceWorks Productions, and WB Games. The strike sought repayment and resolution for all voice actor work in games that started production after February 17, 2015. Voice actors that have spoken in favor of the union and the strike include Jennifer Hale, David Hayter, Elias Toufexis, Phil LaMarr and Wil Wheaton. The first picket began on October 24, 2016 in Playa Vista, California against Electronic Arts. Additional picketing lines occurred at the Los Angeles headquarters for WB Games and Insomniac Games over the month of November. In addition to physical picketing of the various industry companies, SAG-AFTRA encouraged its members to use virtual picketing by engaging with their fans on Twitter and other social media under the hashtag, "#PerformanceMatters". In response to the strike, the affected companies launched a website to inform the SAG-AFTRA members and the public what the state of negotiations were to demonstrate that they were trying to bargain but had been refused by the union. On this site, the companies stated that their proposed payments would be an upfront system and guaranteed regardless of how well a video game sold, making it a better deal for actors. They also noted that they had agreed to terms to split "vocally stressful" sessions from four-hour blocks into two two-hour ones, as long as actors could complete both within a week, but this proposal was rejected by the union. The companies further criticized the union for not bringing its proposed offers to a vote to its members before calling the strike. ==2017 agreement==

On September 23, 2017, SAG-AFTRA and the video game companies came to an agreement, effectively ending the strike. The agreement crafted a new three-year contract with the companies to start after ratification by SAG-AFTRA's board of directors, expected to occur within a few weeks from the agreement. The agreement does not include residuals as SAG-AFTRA sought for, but does include a sliding-scale bonus payment for each recording session a voice actor participates in, starting at $75 for the first session, up to $2,100 for ten or more sessions. Keythe Farley, the chair of the SAG-AFTRA negotiations committee, said that these payments "are significantly larger now than what we had 11 months ago" and praised the new structure. Video game companies must provide additional transparencies for roles voice actors are to perform under the new terms; while they do not need to name the game or character to maintain confidentiality when offering roles, companies must provide actors with project code names, gameplay genre, if the work is based on an existing franchise or character, and whether the work will include profanity, racial slurs, obscure technology terms, sexual or violent content, or physical stunts. The tentative agreement was approved unanimously by SAG-AFTRA's board of directors on October 9, 2017, sending the issue to member vote. The vote was completed on November 7, 2017, and 90% of the 10% that voted approved the agreement. A new three-year agreement subsequently went into effect on November 8, 2017. The agreement was extended for a further two years in 2020 to November 2022. ==Impact==

By the end of 2016, it was unclear how much of an effect the strike had on the video game industry, as none of the companies struck had reported delays of upcoming titles due to the lack of voice actors. SAG-AFTRA noted that they had only targeted strike actions against a subset of the industry, and other publishers and developers would not be affected by their action. By May 2017, SAG-AFTRA stated that it had already signed twenty other companies for thirty games under their alternate contract for low-production titles, with "new deals are being signed every week". One of the first reported effects of the strike was the prequel Life Is Strange: Before the Storm, which had its first episode released on August 31, 2017. Actress Ashly Burch, a member of SAG-AFTRA who voiced Chloe Price in the original game, was unable to reprise her voice role due to the strike and was replaced by Rhianna DeVries; she remained onboard to consult on the character for the game. However, with the strike concluded, Burch was able to return to voice Chloe in an additional episode for Before the Storm produced after the strike's resolution. In a separate case, Giant Sparrow had approached filmmaker John Carpenter to provide narrative voice work for a section of What Remains of Edith Finch, modeled after Carpenter's Tales from the Crypt. The strike prevented Carpenter from participating in this manner, so he instead allowed the studio to license his iconic Halloween theme for the section. Kotaku reported some game developers were critical of the actors' demands in relation to their work compensation. It also caused accusations between actors, with Felicia Day calling DeVries a "scab" in a tweet that she later deleted. PCGamesN noted that Burch did not resent the producers as she still worked on the game as a story consultant. It was the first such organized strike within the video game industry and the first voice actor strike in 17 years, as well as the first strike within the merged SAG-AFTRA organization. As of April 26, 2017, it is the longest strike within SAG, surpassing both the 95-day 1980 Emmy Awards strike, as well as the 180-day 2000 commercials strike. Other members of SAG-AFTRA, and other entertainment workers' unions, looked to the voice actor strike as a possible point in their favor during pending contract renegotiations, in light of how many entertainment industries are transitioning towards digital and streaming media; notably, the main SAG-AFTRA contract for film and television industries is due to expire in June 2017, and the solidarity behind the video game voice actors could be used as leverage in these negotiations. SAG-AFTRA and the film and television producers were able to reach a negotiated agreement for new terms in early July, preventing a possible strike action. The video game industry itself has not had any type of trade union concept due to its origins in the tech sector and the white-collar nature of the industry, though there have been some efforts towards forming such unions. The voice actor strike had reengaged discussions about unionization of video game programmers and developers. ==References==