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[Draugoth]

SAG-AFTRA is going on strike again.​

This time, the union is calling a work stoppage against the major video game companies after nearly two years of trying to renegotiate its Interactive Media Agreement. The decision to hit the picket lines comes 10 months after the union’s initial strike authorization vote. The strike goes into effect July 26 at 12:01 a.m.

The 10 companies facing the strike are Activision Productions Inc., Blindlight LLC, Disney Character Voices Inc., Electronic Arts Productions Inc., Epic Games, Inc., Formosa Interactive LLC, Insomniac Games Inc., Take 2 Productions Inc., VoiceWorks Productions Inc., and WB Games Inc.

Source

 

[Varteras]

AI is going to replace these people by 2030. Count on it.

 

[reinking]

 

[adamsapple]

This is just gonna make more companies start using non-union actors like Capcom started a few years ago.

 

[ssringo]

No real commentary on the reasons or how valid their decision to strike is but looking at the companies listed I have to say...

The 10 companies facing the strike are Activision Productions Inc., Blindlight LLC, Disney Character Voices Inc., Electronic Arts Productions Inc., Epic Games, Inc., Formosa Interactive LLC, Insomniac Games Inc., Take 2 Productions Inc., VoiceWorks Productions Inc., and WB Games Inc.

 

[Mr Moose]

Everyone will just hire Troy Baker.

 

[Punished Miku]

Kind of surprising to single out Insomniac and not Sony as a whole.

 

[Metnut]

Good voice acting makes games a lot better. Hopefully there’s a curator somewhere that lets us know when scab VA is being used.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

Will just accelerate AI usage. No company wants to deal with people doing strikes left and right. The future is anyway one actor and multiple multiple voice overs across various media. Same with actors. People will just license their likeness and will be able to star in various movies leaving smaller actors without any work.

 

[Mr Moose]

Kind of surprising to single out Insomniac and not Sony as a whole.

Kind of surprising to single out Sony when Activision is on that list.

 

[Rentahamster]

This is just gonna make more companies start using non-union actors like Capcom started a few years ago.

If true, what is the optimal play?

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

Kind of surprising to single out Insomniac and not Sony as a whole.

They were probably with this union before Sony even aquired them.

Which is just evidence of how irrelevent this union is. This won't amount to anything

 

[mdkirby]

How to speed up the transition to companies replacing them with ai? Go on strike and refuse to work….something the ai won’t do. It still will regularly not do what you tell it to do, but so do humans

 

[poppabk]

Will just accelerate AI usage. No company wants to deal with people doing strikes left and right. The future is anyway one actor and multiple multiple voice overs across various media. Same with actors. People will just license their likeness and will be able to star in various movies leaving smaller actors without any work.

Yeah they already have one person doing multiple voices - with an AI pass you could have one person voice every character in a game.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

Yeah they already have one person doing multiple voices - with an AI pass you could have one person voice every character in a game.

Yeah, plus localization using the same voices - single actor records everything in one language and AI translates his speech (while retaining voice) to a different language.

All these protesters are no different from seamstresses protesting against sewing machines.

 

[NuclearDiarrhea]

AI has advanced so far that it now shows more emotion than those talentless boring ass video game actors who sound like they're auditioning for the role as a wooden plank. I welcome the inevitable AI voice acting takeover of the gaming industry.

 

[bitbydeath]

Take 2 Productions Inc

Here’s hoping GTAVI finished voice recording.

 

[Joshmyersbv]

Time to sign up for Fiverr and make that money

 

[Eiknarf]

"We’re not going to consent to a contract that allows companies to abuse A.I. to the detriment of our members. Enough is enough." - AG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher

 

[StreetsofBeige]

This is just gonna make more companies start using non-union actors like Capcom started a few years ago.

Yup.

And gaming is an industry where indies can thrive. So if the big companies get nailed, I dont think Bob and his team of 10 people making an indie game are going to unionize. Heck, all of them might be part owner of the game. If anything they are happy.

Business has to continue. And every company will try its best to keep going. What the union wants is such a big stonewall of game workers all holding hands together as a united front like taxi drivers in a city all agreeing to protest Uber coming to town, it likely wont work. Not in gaming. There's options for customers and they'll take their money elsewhere. And once that happens it'll make companies want to fire people more.

Even the taxi protests backfired as it just made people sign up for Uber.

 

[Varteras]

Yup.

And gaming is an industry where indies can thrive. So if the big companies get nailed, I dont think Bob and his team of 10 people making an indie game are going to unionize. Heck, all of them might be part owner of the game. If anything they are happy.

Business has to continue. And every company will try its best to keep going. What the union wants is such a big stonewall of game workers all holding hands together as a united front like taxi drivers in a city all agreeing to protest Uber coming to town, it likely wont work. Not in gaming. There's options for customers and they'll take their money elsewhere. And once that happens it'll make companies want to fire people more.

Even the taxi protests backfired as it just made people sign up for Uber.

Bingo. When companies and consumers have options, and you're probably the least important element of a game's creation, demanding more under threat of not working is just cutting your own throat.

 

[Dirk Benedict]

If this makes games cheaper, I'm all for it.
It won't.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

 

[Jinzo Prime]

I don't buy games from the listed companies anyway.

 

[Quasicat]

Here’s hoping GTAVI finished voice recording.

Probably a majority of the voice work is finished. When I was really into Red Dead Redemption II, I would watch interviews online with the voice actors. They said they did all of the voice work in the first year or so and then sat there waiting for like four years for the game to get announced. The guy that played Arthur said he was called in a few years later to re-record his lines when riding his horse because it sounded too sexual.

 

[Toons]

As always im on the side of those striking and not the nameless faceless corporations.

But idk how successful this will be.

 

[rkofan87]

video game vo is about to get shit.

 

[Perrott]

Fuck these unions.

I'll be supporting my boy Strauss Zelnick no matter what.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Perfect timing to start using AI generated voices I guess

 

[rkofan87]

is ben star apart of this?

 

[simpatico]

Voice actors, maybe more so than any other gaming position, have zero leverage. We all have voices. The only reason you guys have the job is you were unemployed for long enough to actually see it through. AI is just the nail in the coffin.

*this post does not apply to Richard Lintern

 

[Hero of Spielberg]

Forcing your employer to accelerate their adoption of AI.

Bold move

 

[Kings Field]

The unions, the employees, and these shit companies who employee these misfits can all go fucking rot.

 

[Solarstrike]

I've said it before and I'll say it again.

Spoiler: End times

 

[Hudo]

AG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher

I thought she worked as a nanny.

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

Good for them! Stand up and be counted

 

[Wooxsvan]

This is just gonna make more companies start using non-union actors like Capcom started a few years ago.

whew so no delay for MH wilds

 

[Topher]

Really don't see the point in one organization representing so many across so many companies. That's good for SAG-AFTRA, I guess. Maybe that is the point.

 

[a multicultural team of v]

Most voice acting is really bad. So bad it's preferable to hear another language I don't even understand and just read the dialog.

I don't know where AI is going or even how I fully feel about any of it, but I do know that video game voice acting is not the bulwark that will stop it.

 

[ReBurn]

AI is going to replace these people by 2030. Count on it.

Heck, they just walked off the job in protest of the technology that is going to put them out of a job. Seems like the perfect time for technology to step up.

I don't want to see anyone lose their job, but this really doesn't seem like the right way to prove they're move valuable than the robots that can replace them. "Oh, if we use AI then you quit? Thanks for expediting our move to replace you with AI!"

 

[Magic Carpet]

How much will the Boarderlands 4 voice actors get paid to scream into the mike? I don't know if AI can do screaming yet.

 

[ReBurn]

Here’s hoping GTAVI finished voice recording.

AI couldn't do worse than GTA's typical voice acting.

 

[StueyDuck]

This is annoying cause this is gonna affect AI use in games and if there's a medium that would have a genuine net positive use for generative ai it's gaming.

Having dynamic conversations, npcs having more detailed reaction states etc.

Now some weenie with pink hair is gonna stop that.

 

[saintjules]

AI is going to replace these people by 2030. Count on it.

Bookmarked. See you in 6 years.

 

[Varteras]

Bookmarked. See you in 6 years.

Bring the lube. One of us is gettin fucked

 

[Neolombax]

I thought she worked as a nanny.

Nah man, she was actually selling door to door makeup.

 

[Hudo]

Nah man, she was actually selling door to door makeup.

Was that in Flushing, Queens?

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Most voice acting is really bad. So bad it's preferable to hear another language I don't even understand and just read the dialog.

I don't know where AI is going or even how I fully feel about any of it, but I do know that video game voice acting is not the bulwark that will stop it.

I remember someone posting an AI voice over of a Resident Evil clip early in the year. Unless someone told you, there is no way the avg gamer could tell. And that was some dude dabbling with an AI tool on his own.

If employees and VA want to protect their jobs, do better recordings instead studio recorded junk combined with shit scripts. A guy messing around with an AI tool made something better than most VA in games.

 

[Z O N E]

I can see developers just moving to open auditions or something like that to seek out independent talent.

Not only would it be cheaper as you don't need to pay an agency fee, but you might find someone extremely talented, who has just never been given a chance.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

I can see developers just moving to open auditions or something like that to seek out independent talent.

Not only would it be cheaper as you don't need to pay an agency fee, but you might find someone extremely talented, who has just never been given a chance.

So true.

Cheap and less known doesn't mean worse.

A lot of HBO's TV shows which are almost always highly rated have awesome acting from people you've never heard of before. On the other hand, network TV and mainstream movies have well known faces of hollywood, which are often junk acting.