Over seven months since declaring a strike against all video game companies signed to the Interactive Media Agreement, SAG-AFTRA video game performers braved the L.A. rain for their first picket of the year on Wednesday.
“Because of the wildfires and awards season and everything that the world is dealing with, this felt like the right time where we could get back into it all,” “Resident Evil Village” actor and member of the Interactive Media Agreement Negotiating Committee Andi Norris told Variety from the picket outside WB Games in Burbank. “We can bring this back up again and remind people that we are still fighting.”
While SAG-AFTRA and the video game companies’ bargaining committee (which includes Activision Productions, Blindlight, Disney Character Voices, Electronic Arts Productions, Formosa Interactive, Insomniac Games, Llama Productions, Take 2 Productions and WB Games) were able to find common ground on 24 items in a 25-item proposal, the ongoing sticking point surrounds the uses of generative AI in games, particularly in regard to motion and performance capture.
“It boils down to three things for me,” said prominent voice actor Yuri Lowenthal, best known for his performance as Peter Parker in Insomniac Games’ “Spider-Man” series. “One is consent that you don’t use the data that you’ve recorded from us to manufacture a performance that we had no say over. Two, compensation: if you’re going to do something like that, then we deserve a piece of that. Otherwise, actors won’t get paid anymore, and it’s all over for us. And three: control, being able to track that sort of stuff and know where it’s going.”
Several SAG-AFTRA voice performers at the picket expressed frustration that there’s still no resolution on the horizon, given that the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes, which addressed similar concerns about the use of artificial intelligence in media, were resolved in much less time. “It’s very infuriating that the on-camera movement fought as hard as they did, and they were able to reach a deal in four months,” says “Hades” voice actor Marin M. Miller. “We are very angry that we’re not being taken seriously at this point.”
For Miller, the thought of an AI-generated voice clone defeats the entire purpose of making art. Citing their performance as Nimbus in “Destiny 2,” Miller told Variety, “When they experienced a traumatic loss, you saw vulnerability come out in the session when I was recording those lines. I was sexually assaulted earlier on in life. There were moments that I was drawing from where I masked the pain of being sexually assaulted by telling jokes, and that’s what I pulled on for that performance.”
They continued, “I’ve had nonbinary people come up to me at conventions to tell me how much it means to them to see a nonbinary person working in media, just existing. Even though I’m not there for them in those moments where the character and them interact, I still have that moment of intimacy, of connection. There is no intimacy or connection if that work is done by a robot. It’s just me being used as a puppet.”
Voice actor Scott Lambright echoed Miller’s concerns, adding, “AI is going to quickly divide it into studios that don’t use AI, and studios who do … It’s going to create a gulf in quality between art made by passionate people and, I guess the term is slop.”
SAG-AFTRA executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland told Variety last year that the reasoning given by video game publishers as to why they cannot agree to the A.I. language regarding motion and performance capture is unfounded. Publishers argue that motion capture work is largely used as an amalgamation of actors’ performances in video games and not something producers are capable of accounting for when it comes to compensation.
Norris said that there’s still no clear end in sight, as there’s been no budging on that key issue. “They haven’t offered us anything reasonable. We are not as close as they are making it sound, which is unfortunate, because what we are asking is still very reasonable: if you use my data to run your game, if you use my performance, then I want to know about it and I want to be compensated.”
As the strike carries on, Norris hopes to see more TV and film actors bring attention to the fight and stand by their side at pickets, as many game actors did for them in 2023. The way she sees it, it’s mutually beneficial. “We’re on the front line here of humanity being replaced in storytelling of the human condition,” she said. “This part of the industry is a canary in the coal mine, and that’s what I hope that other aspects of this industry understand. We’re all seeing it happen in real time, and so if they come out and support us, it supports them. It supports their fight.”
