Voice Actors Considering Game Strike

Posted on May 27, 2005

Voice actors are threatening to strike against game makers like Electronic Arts and Rockstar Games. Game makers want to pay a flat fee to use actors' voices in video games but the voice actors would prefer to share in some of the profits made from the games. Xeni Jarden has written an article for Wired about the situation.

Roughly 1,900 Screen Actors Guild, or SAG, members and 1,000 American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, or AFTRA, members were asked for authorization to strike against 70 video-game publishers including Activision, Electronic Arts, Vivendi Universal, Rockstar Games and LucasArts.
The most contentious issue at hand: whether actors should be entitled to a share of the profits from video games that feature their voices.

Xeni writes that game publishers have threatened to use nonunion voice actors if SAG and AFTRA members go through with a strike.