SAG-AFTRA has come to a temporary agreement with gaming companies to end a year-long strike.
An industry strike among voice actors that began nearly a year ago is coming to a tentative end. In October of 2016, voice actors of SAG-AFTRA called for a strike against several gaming companies. The companies most notably impacted were Activision, EA, and Insomniac.
The most high profile game the strike affected was Life is Strange: Before the Storm. Ashly Burch, who previously voiced the blue-haired Chloe, was not able to reprise her role due to her membership in the union.
Resident Evil 2 ‘s remake was also affected by the strike. Alyson Court, who voiced the franchise’s Claire Redfield in all previous games, did not participate in the remake due to the strike.
On Monday, SAG-AFTRA announced in a press release that an agreement had been reached. The agreement involves a new payment structure that offers a bonus to actors based on how many sessions they worked.
Additionally, the companies are now offering more transparency to the actors working with them. This provision requires developers to disclose more information to voice actors. Included in this information is the product’s genre, code name, and originality. Furthermore, companies must disclose any sexual, violent, or profane content the the product will include.
SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris said of the deal:
“This is an important advance in this critical industry space. We secured a number of gains including for the first time, a secondary payment structure which was one of the members’ key concerns. The courage of our members and their fortitude these many months has been admirable and I salute them. We are always stronger together.”
While companies did meet several of the union’s stipulations for ending the strike, they left many unanswered.
Originally, the union members demanded compensation based on number of game sales. The union labeled the agreement as ‘tentative’ since companies failed to meet this request.
