TapTechNews August 7th news, since July 26th, members of the Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) have begun to strike against the game industry. This strike involves more than 160,000 SAG-AFTRA members, causing a huge impact on game development from large publishers to small independent studios.
The core controversy of the strike lies in the use of AI technology. The union side demands strict protection for the digital replicas of actors and the application of generative AI to prevent unauthorized use of actors' images and voices. However, the Game Industry Negotiating Committee - representing the interests of 30 companies including Activision Blizzard, Take-Two, and Naughty Dog, has differences in the scope of protection.
The union side demands to protect all actors involved in voice and motion capture, while game companies initially only proposed to protect voice actors. Although the protection scope was later expanded to motion capture actors, it was only limited to 'the identifiable parts of the actor in the AI digital replica', which was strongly opposed by the union. The union believes that this proposal will exclude most motion capture actors and put them at risk of being replaced by AI.
The game industry stated that the plan it proposed is already sufficient and requires the consent of the actors. The positions of both sides remain deadlocked, resulting in a breakdown of negotiations.
It is worth noting that this strike is not a complete work stoppage. Some projects under certain conditions are not affected, such as indie games with lower budgets and games that have been in production before August 2023. However, the union encourages members to avoid participating in these projects.
TapTechNews noticed that this is the second strike by SAG-AFTRA against the game industry since 2016. The last strike lasted for 11 months and won fixed salary increases, a safer shooting environment, and protection against vocal cord damage and other rights for actors.
The focus of this strike is the potential threat of AI to the actors' profession, and the result will have a profound impact on the entire game industry.