LOS ANGELES (AP) — After striking for over a month, video game performers have reached agreements with 80 games that have signed interim or tiered budget agreements with the performers' union and accepted the artificial intelligence provisions they have been seeking.
Members of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists began striking in July after negotiations with game industry giants that began more than a year and a half ago came to a halt over AI protections. Union leaders say game voice actors and motion capture artists’ likenesses could be replicated by AI and used without their consent and without fair compensation.
SAG-AFTRA announced the agreements with the 80 individual video games on Thursday. Performers impacted by the work stoppage can now work on those projects.
The strike against other major video game publishers, including Disney and Warner Bros.' game companies and Electronic Arts Productions Inc., will continue.
The interim agreement secures wage improvements, protections around “exploitative uses” of artificial intelligence and safety precautions that account for the strain of physical performances, as well as vocal stress. The tiered budget agreement aims to make working with union talent more feasible for independent game developers or smaller-budget projects while also providing performers the protections under the interim agreement.
