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Posted in: Games, Indie Games, Video Games | Tagged: ai, artificial intelligence, SAG-AFTRA, SAG-AFTRA Strike
80 Video Games Sign Union Agreement With SAG-AFTRA Over AI Usage
SAG-AFTRA has signed an agreement with 80 different video games over tiered budgeting and common sense AI precautions, among the topics
Article Summary
- SAG-AFTRA signs agreements with 80 video games, ensuring tiered budgets and A.I. protections for voice actors.
- Indie studios and smaller companies lead the charge, while major studios remain in negotiations post-July strike.
- Game companies praise SAG-AFTRA for standardizing agreements and enhancing voice talent quality and consistency.
- SAG-AFTRA leaders highlight the importance of A.I. protections and labor agreements in maintaining industry standards.
SAG-AFTRA announced this afternoon that several studios have signed an agreement with the union, agreeing to a tiered budget or interim agreement, which includes common sense A.I. protections. Eighty different video games have agreed to the terms and will be following through on them; the majority of them coming out of indie studios or smaller game companies, none of them being the major studios currently in negotiation with the union after they went on strike in July. We have several quotes from SAG-AFTRA and some of the studio heads below from today's announcement.
80 Studios Sign SAG-AFTRA Agreement
"Little Bat Games is proud to work with SAG-AFTRA in ensuring that top-tier voice talent is appropriately compensated and protected," the game company said in a statement. "As a small studio working on a game about psychology, we always advocate protecting human interests and appreciate SAG-AFTRA's help to keep the industry accountable."
"I support SAG-AFTRA actors during this strike and hope that A.I. protections are secured," said developer Francisco Gonzalez.
Jeremy Stieglitz, Development Director at Studio Wildcard said, "Studio Wildcard partners with production company Noah Protocol for all of its SAG-AFTRA member videogame voice recordings, in ARK Survival Evolved and beyond. SAG-AFTRA has enabled us to work with top-tier talent using standardized union agreements, which has been a huge benefit to the quality and consistency of voicework in our games."
SAG-AFTRA Interactive Media Agreement Negotiating Committee Chair Sarah Elmaleh said, "This labor action is about creating work with sufficient A.I. protections. The sheer volume of companies that have signed SAG-AFTRA agreements demonstrates how reasonable those protections are. We are thrilled for our actors to continue working under fair union contracts with companies who know how invaluable our performers are to their games."
SAG-AFTRA's National Executive Director & Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said, "We applaud those video game companies signing our tiered-budget and interim agreements. Not only are they doing the right thing by their workers, they're also helping to preserve the human art, ingenuity and creativity that fuels interactive storytelling. These agreements signal that the video game companies in the collective bargaining group do not represent the will of the larger video game industry. The many companies that are happy to agree to our A.I. terms prove that these terms are not only reasonable, but feasible and sustainable for businesses."
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