Video game voice actors are considering a strike for better conditions

Video game voice actors may soon go on strike over a payment dispute with large game publishers.

After negotiations with industry representative fell through, SAG-AFTRA – a sub-group of the Screen Actor’s Guild built for voice actors – has taken to polling its members online, about whether or not they should go on strike. If 75% of the union’s community votes yes, then all members of the SAG-AFTRA will be required to not work until a resolution has been reached. A back end bonus is a trade-off where an actor or voice artist can get a cut of the overall gross of a movie or game in exchange for a lower fee for their service. The new contract was written to give voice actors those same benefits, but the proposal was ultimately declined by producers from EA Games, Activision, Disney, Warner Bros, and other studios.

“That shakes out, potentially, to four bonus payments for the most successful games: 2 million, 4 million, 6 million and 8 million copies”, members added.

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Voting on the strike is slated to close October. 5.

“The top games make money”, SAG-AFTRA said.

The union contended that such bonuses are not uncommon in the videogame industry, noting that Activision’s chief operating officer received a bonus past year of $3,970,862 and Electronic Arts paid their executive chairman a bonus of $1.5 million. They also want to be able to hire their own employees for voice acting without having to join SAG-AFTRA. “That’s why we’re proposing to limit “vocally stressful” recording sessions to two hours at the same union minimums”.

The additional proposed demands include stunt pay “for vocally stressful recording sessions”, the presence of a stunt coordinator on set, and more transparency on game projects. The definition if being “attentive” is not specifically explained and the union has stated their demands “may not even be legally enforceable”. On the official website, the proposal suggests that voice actors would only get their cut after the game has sold 2 million units.

We’ll keep you informed on the progress of this matter.

Using the hashtags #PerformanceMatters and #iamonboard2015, actors such as Jennifer Hale, Ashly Burch, Wil Wheaton, Phil LaMarr, and Steve Blum have all posted on social media that they have voted in favor of a strike.