Video game performers have been on strike since July 26, 2024, and negotiations remain “far apart,” according to the Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. SAG-AFTRA chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland and Interactive Media Negotiating Committee chair Sarah Elmaleh jointly sent out a letter to members on Tuesday, sharing an update on bargaining. The sticking point continues to be the use of artificial intelligence and the use of “digital replicas” of video game actors.
“They want to use all past performances and any performance they can source from outside the contract without any of the protections being bargained at all,” Crabtree-Ireland and Elmaleh wrote. “You could be told nothing about your replica being used, offered nothing in the way of payment, and you could do nothing about it. They want to be able to make your replica continue to work, as you, during a future strike, whether you like it or not. And once you’ve given your specific consent for how your replica can be used, they refuse to tell you what they actually did with it.”
Per the strike rules, video game performers can continue work on games that were already in production as of Aug. 25, 2024 — so living games, like Zenless Zone Zero and Apex Legends are technically fair game. But some companies, like Riot Games’ League of Legends, are explicitly struck due to alleged bad behavior from the company it uses to hire voice actors, Formosa Interactive. Formosa Interactive is one of several companies bargaining with SAG-AFTRA as a group; Epic Games, Electronic Arts, Activision Blizzard, Insomniac Games, and several more are also part of the group.
However, voice actors and other video game performers — even those not in the union — may withhold their labor in solidarity, even from projects not technically struck. That’s what happened to at least two Zenless Zone Zero voice actors who who replaced due to their unwillingness to work on a project not covered by SAG-AFRA’s interim agreement, which would ensure the AI protections the union is currently fighting for.
“I was replaced as Soldier 11 because I am unwilling to perform work not covered by a SAG Interim Agreement during a strike for AI protection, the outcome of which will determine the future of our industry,” Emeri Chase, who voiced Soldier 11, wrote on BlueSky. Nicholas Thurkettle, who voiced Lycaon, said on BlueSky he made a “personal choice,” and has since been replaced, too. Thurkettle said in a separate post that he learned about the replacement when the Zenless Zone Zero update went live. “I share your shock,” he wrote. Several other voice actors were placed in August, but it was never confirmed as to why.
HoYoverse, which makes Zenless Zone Zero, has opted to leave several of its characters unvoiced in English due to voice actors being unavailable during the strike. When a Genshin Impact update when live in October, the silence was noticeable. But the SAG-AFTRA strike is also impacting other video games across the industry: In February, some Destiny 2 characters were unvoiced, too. However, like HoYoverse with Zenless Zone Zero, Activision Blizzard reportedly chose to replace a couple voice actors on Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.
As the strike continues, and more new video games enter production, the impact of the strike could increase. The impact of AI use in video games may increase, too: Voice actor Mika Nerida took to X on Tuesday to accusedindie game Castle of Secrets developer Serene Questworks of replacing all its voice actors with “AI-trained voices.” A day prior, The Verge published a report on Sony Interactive Entertainment prototyping “an AI-powered version of Aloy from Horizon Forbidden West.” The video doesn’t seem to show AI Aloy using voice actor Ashly Burch’s voice. (Polygon has reached out to Sony and Burch for clarification on the voice acting in the demo). Nvidia, too, is working on similar technology. Even outside of SAG-AFTRA, video game voice actors want protections: The entire French Apex Legends cast reportedly declined to sign a contract with Respawn Entertainment that would allow the company to use voices to train AI.
SAG-AFTRA published a chart that plainly lays out how negotiations with the video game companies is going, showing the back-and-forth between the two groups on AI usage. The largest issues are around “digital replicas,” which the video game companies want to define as performances that are “objectively identifiable” as the actor; the union says most of their work doesn’t apply there, so they’re looking to include language that ensures a contracts apply as identifying an actor in a role. Then, the union wants to protect actors from digital replicas created using work created before the new contract goes into effect. That protection, too, is of dispute; the union wants transparency, compensation, usage rules — giving actors the right to consent to usage for a set timeframe, to know how it’s used, then to be compensated fairly for it.
Polygon has reached out to a representative of group of companies negotiating with SAG-AFTRA for comment.
Source：https://www.polygon.com/news/538170/zenless-zoice-zero-voice
