- Someone who knows the internal politics of the union itself can probably tell you how this is likely to go as far as members actually authorizing a strike.
- The union is seeking to strike against a group of major video game studios that are signatories to SAG's video game contract. This doesn't include every game studio but includes several major ones: Activision, Epic, Insomniac, Take 2. Notably it includes Disney and WB, which are companies that are currently struck under the film and television strike (yes, strikes happen separately under different bargaining agreements in different fields).
- It's unclear to me if the list given by SAG-AFTRA's press release is comprehensive or if there are other studios they don't mention that fall under this specific agreement, but lots and lots of studios work with non-union talent or are otherwise not covered by this agreement.
- As far as I can tell the issues the union is putting forward are not residuals per se but general questions of pay and, of course, 'AI'. The main demands seem to be protections against the reuse of work to train models, increases in base pay, and better working conditions for voice performers (ie, not having them record line after line for hours until their voices break). Reasonable, normal stuff!
- Residuals are a very complicated can of worms to open in the games industry. The infrastructure to pay them just doesn't exist; sales figures are not really public, and generally nobody is keeping track of revenue from back catalog games and thinking about how they're supposed to be paid to to talent. If a union actually won residuals in an agreement with video game studios it would be a major change in the industry, and could lead to this being on the table for other unionized groups, but that's very far away from a reality right now.
- If a strike does happen, the way it might impact productions is a lot more complicated and varied from product to product than it is in film. Video game production cycles are much longer, and different productions will be caught in different places in production. I think in video games there's a lot more ability to work around a potential strike and have it not delay a launch date. This is going to be a significant test of SAG-AFTRA's actual bargaining power against the games industry, because I think studio management will have a lot more reason to think they can hold out; actors being on strike wouldn't put an entire production on hold in the way that it has done on film and television.
ヾ(・ω・*)
- they/them
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in reply to @bruno's post:
If a union actually won residuals in an agreement with video game studios it would be a major change in the industry
it would probably completely change the economics of the game industry and initiate many extremely difficult but necessary fights. it's hard to imagine all the implications. one thing i know for sure is that gamers would side with capital and the bosses, at least at first.
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