SAG-AFTRA Video Game Performers Hold Picket Outside WB Games as Strike Continues: ‘We Are Still Fighting’

variety.com:

Katcy Stephan 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.